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November 2011 headlines (issue 55)

Dalgety Bay further particle find
SEPA has detected a dangerously radioactive particle source at Dalgety Bay. The Scottish regulator is threatening to make the first UK designation of radioactively contaminated land unless site owner the Defence Infrastructure Organisation presents remediation plans by 22 November.

Growth estimates
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has revealed estimates on turnover, exports, jobs and growth for the contaminated land sector, following a question in the House of Commons by Labour MP Barry Gardiner.

QBE liability insurance launch
Insurer QBE has created a new team to launch an environmental impairment liability product, made up of portfolio manager Wayne Harrington and assistant underwriter Ellie Merkin.

Study links Parkinsons and trichloroethylene
A study in twins has found exposure to trichloroethylene is “significantly associated” with increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

Capping at Brofiscin Quarry
Capping works at Brofiscin Quarry have begun on behalf of Environment Agency Wales.

Land Trust supports brownfield land handover
The Land Trust has come out in favour of the communities and local government committee’s recent report on regeneration, which calls for non-core government land to be developed for the greater good, but said land must be transferred with funding to sustain long term development.

EIC launches asbestos campaign
The Environmental Industries Commission has launched a major lobbying campaign calling on Defra and the Department of Health to “require the Environment Agency and Health and Safety Executive to support industry-led, non-statutory practitioner guidance on asbestos in soil to help provide a consistent approach for UK industry, stakeholders and regulators”.

I & H Brown awarded Coatbridge gasworks job
I & H Brown’s civil engineering division has been awarded a third package of work by National Grid Property Holdings for 2011, to run alongside ongoing schemes at Provan and Kirkintilloch.

Sustainability recognised at Remediation Awards
Thirteen companies have been announced as winners at the seventh annual Brownfield Briefing Remediation Awards.

CPRE demands brownfield first
The Campaign to Protect Rural England has challenged government claims there is a shortage of brownfield land suitable for housing development and called for the reinstatement of a brownfield first policy in the National Planning Policy Framework.

Hardie attacks NPPF plans
The proposed National Planning Policy Framework could lead to brownfield sites in major city centres being abandoned, according to environmental scientist Alex Hardie, technical expert with laboratory Exova.

Recycled glass water clean-up
University of Greenwich scientist Dr Nichola Coleman has developed a method of removing heavy metals from contaminated groundwater using tobermorite derived from waste glass and dust from cement kilns.

Developer opposes planning policy u-turn
John Elliott, managing director of developer Millwood Designer Homes, has come out against reinstatement of a brownfield first policy under the planning regime.

All-clear for Marle Hill landfill
The Environment Agency and Cheltenham Borough Council have issued a remediation declaration giving the Marle Hill landfill site the “all-clear”.

SoBRA annual conference on risk assessment
The Society of Brownfield Risk Assessment is holding its annual conference jointly with the Royal Society of Chemistry toxicology group in London on 21 December.

Agency consultation
The Environment Agency is seeking comments on revisions to parts four and five of GP3 (Groundwater protection: principles and practice) prior to finalisation. The consultation closes on 23 December.

CL:AIRE seeks site
CL:AIRE has been contacted by a technology developer seeking a site to undertake a CL:AIRE technology demonstration project.

Soils video online
The Environment Agency has posted a short video on its website that “shows how to examine soil structure, covering the soil surface, top soil, subsoil and soil types”.

Technical bulletin
CL:AIRE has published technical bulletin 15, Accounting for the groundwater-surface water interface in contaminated land assessments, which is now available to download from the publications page of its website.

Innovation Cube
The first planning application for development in Northampton’s Waterside Enterprise Zone has been submitted.

ERM expands in Wales
ERM is expanding its operation in Wales, with the aim of doubling in size over the next two years.

Treatment centre visits
Hydrock, operator of the M20 soil treatment centre, has offered visits to the site for potential clients and other interested parties, following a successful open day.

CIRIA asbestos guide
CIRIA is to produce A client’s guide for the management of asbestos risk gen

Compost webinar
CL:AIRE and WRAP are running a free webinar on the use of quality compost in landscaping and regeneration on 23 November.

Abstracts request
NICOLE is calling for abstracts for its network meeting on water in contaminated land management to be held from 13-15 June in Baden-Baden, Germany.

Superfund renewables
The US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory are working together to evaluate the feasibility of installing renewable energy generation on Superfund, brownfield and former landfill and mining sites.

Simple radon detection
A Norwegian company has developed a simple measuring device it said will make it easier to check for exposure to radon.

CIEH planning concerns
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health said it shared the concerns of other observers about proposed changes to planning policy.

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October 2011 headlines (issue 53)

Thame gasholder clean-up begins
South Oxfordshire District Council has begun remediation of gardens on a former gasworks in Thame, some five years after contamination was raised as a concern.

Nicole awards
NICOLE has launched its technology award for 2011, titled “Innovative solutions for soil monitoring in contaminated land”.

Haringey Heartlands approval
Haringey Council’s planning committee has approved the Haringey Heartlands scheme, allowing development of new homes, shops, restaurants, offices and public space that will “transform the heart of the borough”.

Ashfield Solutions opens Northern Ireland office
Contaminated land consultancy Ashfield Solutions has opened a regional office in Northern Ireland.

ATG scoops Sikh temple job
Northern Ireland remediation contractor ATG Services has won a £300,000 contract to clear a contaminated site in central Glasgow where a Sikh temple is planned.

Dalgety Bay may be determined
Dalgety Bay may be designated radioactively contaminated land under the Radioactive Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2007, which came into force at the end of October 2007, by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, after a further find of high activity radioactive particles on the Fife beach gave SEPA “cause for concern”.

EPG launches online technical forum
Consultancy the Environmental Protection Group has launched a technical forum on its recently revamped website.

SEPA staff called off Ravel Burn
Scottish Environment Protection Agency staff have been instructed not to carry out any further site investigations at the Ravel Burn site at Tannochside on the outskirts of Glasgow until a risk assessment is carried out, due to safety concerns.

Government red tape boast
The government has given the revisions to the Part 2A statutory guidance as an example of its “real progress cutting red tape” as the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published a full-year summary on progress in cutting the cost of regulation to business.

Halton defers tannery housing decision
Halton Borough Council’s planning committee has deferred a decision on proposals to build 168 homes on a contaminated former tannery site in Runcorn.

NPPF ‘promotes brownfield’ claim
DCLG has issued a statement claiming its Draft National Planning Policy Framework – which has been widely condemned as reducing greenbelt protection – will in fact encourage development on brownfield land.

YCLF meets in Halifax on changes to planning
The Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum held its 16th meeting in Halifax last month, focusing on “Making sense of the spending review, new regulations and changes to the planning system”.

Landfill liner research
Researchers have tested four types of liner within a simulated landfill scenario to assess whether contamination of groundwater is affected by the choice of material. Scientists looked specifically at contamination by organic phenol compounds and inorganic heavy metals (lead, copper, zinc, chromium, cadmium and nickel).

PB signs NDA deal
Consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff has signed a contract with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to support development of an underground disposal facility “which will keep radioactive materials isolated for thousands of years”.

Grugeon to leave EPUK
The recession has pushed Environmental Protection UK into a further reshuffle.

LNAPL handbook
CL:AIRE is project managing publication of an Illustrated handbook of LNAPL fate and behaviour in the subsurface.

ERM acquisition
Consultancy ERM has acquired Oasis Environmental, an environmental services company in Alaska, USA.

CL:AIRE membership
CL:AIRE has introduced a membership scheme consisting of two types: technical and corporate.

Public spaces plea
The Land Trust is urging organisations to make non-core land available to local communities by creating open public spaces that can be enjoyed by all, “while increasing profitability for the landowner”.

HCA leads on homes
The Homes and Communities Agency will have a key role to play in plans to release enough public land to build up to 100,000 new homes by 2015, the agency’s chief executive Pat Ritchie said.

EIC asbestos event
The Environmental Industries Commission has organised a one day conference titled Asbestos in soil: developments in legislation, policy and practice. It will take place in Manchester on November 1.

New CIWEM president
David Wilkes has taken over from Gerard Morris as CIWEM president for the 2011-2012 period.

Landfill gas recovery
Landfill gas recovery projects should be implemented quickly if the maximum amount of methane gas is to be retrieved in as short as time as possible, according to a study in the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management.

Superfund sites added
The US Environmental Protection Agency has added 15 hazardous waste sites that pose risks to health and the environment to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. The EPA is also proposing a further 11 sites be added to the list.

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September 2011 headlines (issue 52)

OWBC revokes gasworks decision
Oadby and Wigston Borough Council’s environmental health department has recommended the council revoke its Part 2A determination on the Wigston gasworks following an investigation by consultancy Atkins that concluded “none of the land meets the current definition of contaminated land, a view that is supported by the Environment Agency”.

EIC briefs Richard Benyon on industry obstacles
The Environmental Industries Commission has met with Defra minister Richard Benyon to discuss key issues affecting the contaminated land industry.

Part 2A progress
Defra head of contaminated land Tom Coles has informed the Environmental Industries Commission revised Part IIA guidance is “very close” to the final draft, and should be laid before Parliament on 6 October.

Progress at Mersey Gateway
Ground investigation works to “pave the way for the construction of the Mersey Gateway Project” are underway.

Planning controversy
Controversy over the government’s proposed changes to the planning system continues.

Brownfield target will definitely go
Planning minister Bob Neill has confirmed DCLG’s decision to remove the national brownfield redevelopment target and claimed the new national planning policy framework “makes clear” local authorities should allocate land with the least environmental value as possible for housebuilding.

LQM and CIEH publish unacceptable intake maps
LQM and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health have published unacceptable intake roadmaps for 18 of “the most commonly encountered and difficult contaminants including arsenic, naphthalene and benzo(a)pyrene”.

Newts still threatened
Despite protection under UK and European wildlife law, great crested newts are still declining overall, with deterioration of habitat remaining the biggest threat, according to a study for Natural England.

Bull joins AEAT
Sarah Bull, previously a senior toxicologist working in the contaminated land field for the Health Protection Agency, has taken a new position at AEA Technology. Bull will continue to be based at Chilton in Oxfordshire.

No health risk from landfills
“Well-managed” landfills do not pose a significant risk to public health, according to the latest research from the Health Protection Agency.

Radioactive waste to stay at Dounreay
Dounreay’s decommissioning contractor has set out what will be done in the long term with an estimated 300,000 tonnes of radioactive material from the clean-out and closure of the former nuclear research site.

Asbestos conference
CL:AIRE, in association with the Environmental Industries Commission and British Occupational Hygiene Society, is bringing together the asbestos management, occupational hygiene and brownfield sectors for a one-day conference.

Mercury mopped up
Research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal BMC Biotechnology showcases genetically engineered bacteria that can both withstand high levels of mercury and “mop up” mercury from their surroundings.

Ravel Burn cause for concern
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s North Lanarkshire operations team is continuing to investigate pollution of a section of the Ravel Burn in Uddingston, after the latest sample results showed signs of oil pollution.

Works to establish Dalgety Bay particles source
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has begun the next phase of work to determine the potential source of the radioactive particles that continue to repopulate the beach at Dalgety Bay.

Hydrock appoints Ted Stokes
Consultancy and contractor Hydrock has appointed Ted Stokes (pictured) infrastructure engineering director.

IKM appointments IKM
Consulting has announced a number of appointments.

LQM office move
LQM has moved from its home of eight years in Beeston, relocating to the University of Nottingham Innovation Park.

Approval for Northampton road
West Northamptonshire Development Corporation’s planning committee has approved an application for a new road in Northampton.

Conviction after nine years of illegal dumping
The Environment Agency has finally prosecuted a Romford man who had been illegally dumping waste for nine years.

Waste CoP guidance
CL:AIRE has published guidance on its Definition of waste: development industry code of practice, which sets out some of the key information it contains.

RDA/HPA land transfer
The process of transferring regional development agency land and property assets worth £300 million to the Homes and Communities Agency has been completed.

McAuliffe brings Italian kit to UK
Specialist contaminated land contractor the McAuliffe Group has partnered with Italian technology provider Geostream to offer sale and rental of bespoke process-based remediation solutions.

Gemmell leaves SEPA
SEPA chief executive Campbell Gemmell is to step down at the end of the year to take on a role in Australia.

RAE monitor servicing
Ashtead Technology has invested in a service and calibration facility for RAE portable gas monitors.

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July/August 2011 headlines (issue 52)

NPPF to scrap brownfield target
The government has published its draft National Planning Policy Framework, which would remove the brownfield-first policy and reduces guidance on contaminated land to one sentence: “Local policies and decisions should ensure… the site is suitable for its new use taking account of ground conditions, pollution arising from previous uses and any proposals for land remediation.”

Nottinghamshire grows biofuels on former landfill
Nottinghamshire County Council is piloting a scheme to generate income from a restored landfill site at Fiskerton by growing miscanthus for burning as a biofuel.

Asbestos pipe policy
The Environment Agency has published a regulatory position statement, Leaving decommissioned asbestos pipe in excavations.

New office for Delta Consultancy
Delta-Simons has opened an office in Durham city centre.

NLC looks into Shotts ironworks
North Lanarkshire Council has fenced off open space and paths at Stane Gardens in Shotts while investigations are carried out after evidence of contamination was found.

Coventry begins Defra-funded Part 2A project
Coventry City Council has begun site investigations under Part 2A funded by Defra’s capital grants programme,

Man City to clean up 80-acre site for academy
Manchester City Football Club has begun a consultation on a proposed youth development and training facility it plans to build on 80 acres of brownfield land opposite its ground.

CIWEM Corby warning on funding
CIWEM has warned of a potential repeat of the Corby birth defects case due to cuts in funding for contaminated land.

Land Forum aims to make big splash from outset
The successor to the National Brownfield Forum ended its first meeting having decided on a name change to the Land Forum, having originally been the Brownfield Forum.

Shale-gas contract first for GGS
Gas monitoring, remediation and risk assessment company Ground-Gas Solutions has been awarded a contract to carry out environmental monitoring for a shale gas exploration company.

HPA and BGS publish Scotland radon map
The Health Protection Agency and British Geological Survey have published a radon map of Scotland.

NLC heading to court
Collins Solicitors look certain to take North Lanarkshire Council to court over the ongoing dispute about the level of contamination at Watling Street in Motherwell.

North of England conference
The North East Contaminated Land Forum, Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum and North West Brownfield Regeneration Forum held a joint “North of England’’ summer conference on sustaining remediation at Teesside University on 6 July.

EPUK demands Defra commitment
Environmental Protection UK has written to Defra secretary of state Caroline Spelman urging the department to “make a firm commitment to develop key research and delivery tools to support new guidance on contaminated land”.

Capital grants 2011/12
CLB sets out the winners in the latest round of capital grants funding for site investigation and remediation in easy-to-read table form for your perusal

Pat Ritchie visits Middlehaven
Pat Ritchie, chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency has visited a £200 million development in the Middlehaven area of Middlesbrough

Soil dumped in Glasgow
Illegally depositing soil on a site in the middle of Glasgow’s Commonwealth games regeneration area has resulted in a representative of two haulage companies paying £11,000 in compensation, plus a fine.

NI guidance
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency has published Guidance on the contents of a site specific working plan for a mobile plant licence.

HPA radon analysis
The Health Protection Agency has published An analysis of radon remediation methods.

BP site remediation
Hydrock has started works to remediate a 8.7 hectare reservoir on a former BP site in Coed Darcy for St Modwen.

Soil hub open day
ReM20 is holding an open day on 8 September and is inviting developers, consultants, remediation specialists and civils and groundworks contractors “to see for themselves how contaminated soils can be removed from site without incurring landfill tax”.

Radioactive waste report
The government has published the first report of its managing radioactive waste safely programme and a consultation on how potential sites for geological disposal will be identified and assessed.

Briggs joins Hydrock
Consultant and contractor Hydrock has appointed Mark Briggs, previously with URS and Mouchel, as geo-environmental associate.

Eureka award
A Lithuanian-led bioremediation project has won this year's Eureka Innovation Award.

RCLEA radon revision
RCLEA, the Environment Agency’s recommended approach for the first stage of assessing radioactively contaminated land under Part 2A, has been updated to take account of a change in the legal definition of “substance” that removes the exclusion for radon and its decay products.

SEPA lab service to move
SEPA will be operating laboratory and other services from new offices in the Maxim Office Park at Eurocentral, North Lanarkshire from early 2013.

Jagdag consultation
The Joint Agencies Groundwater Directive Advisory Group was set up to determine which substances were within list one and two under the old groundwater directive.

Odour guidance
Defra has published guidance on odour for local authorities.

Illegal soil dumping
A haulage company illegally deposited more than 10,000 tonnes of waste soil to fill in part of a lake to allow a miniature railway to be re-routed, Wellingborough Magistrates’ Court heard, resulting in a fine of £27,500 and full costs of £7,796 for Thomas Haulage.

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June 2011 headlines (issue 51)

EIC to develop Part 2A guidance
The Environmental Industries Commission has met Richard Benyon, the Defra minister with responsibility for contaminated land, to propose working with the department to develop supplementary guidance to assist practitioners in implementing the changes to be made when revised statutory guidance under Part 2A is published later this year.

Capital grant awards
This year’s single bid window for the local authority contaminated land capital projects programme was oversubscribed by over 100%, the Environment Agency has admitted.

Part 2A revision fails to impress
Defra’s proposed changes to statutory guidance under Part 2A have failed to impress local authority contaminated land officers, if the response to a questionnaire handed out by Chartered Institute of Environmental Health principal policy officer Howard Price at the last standing conference on land contamination meeting is anything to go by.

Calderdale bans allotment produce consumption
Calderdale Council has advised allotment holders not to eat vegetables grown at the Milner Royd allotment site in Sowerby Bridge after tests found vegetables contained high doses of arsenic, lead and hydrocarbons.

YCLF meets on ‘waste matters’
The Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum held its fifteenth technical meeting, Waste matters in contaminated land projects, on 20 May at the Priory Centre in York.

PAG planning draft downplays contamination
The dismantling of the planning system continues, with the government planning to publish a draft national planning policy framework next month and a consultation currently underway on removing requirements for planning applications for proposed changes of use from commercial to residential.

Reading adds colon to PBET
University of Reading scientists have developed a model of the gastrointestinal system in order to simulate the passage of contaminated soil through the gut, producing data on the bioavailability of contaminants.

Asbestos and gas help request
CIRIA is seeking support to develop two guidance documents, “a good practice guide on verification of protection and testing of barriers for hazardous ground gases and a comprehensive guide on the assessment and mitigation of risks associated with asbestos found on contaminated sites”.

Commission publishes soil sealing strategy
A report by the European Commission recommends a three-tiered approach focused on limiting soil sealing, mitigating its effects and compensating soil losses by action in other areas.

Site investigation innovation
CLB attends a NICOLE meeting that took place in Copenhagen this month, and reports back on proceedings, including NICOLE’s first technology award and publication of a report on environmental liability transfer

Hodson joins CL:AIRE
Mark Hodson has joined CL:AIRE’s technology and research group.
Augean waste permit The Environment Agency has granted Augean South a permit to dispose of low level radioactive waste at East Northants Resource Management Facility, near Peterborough.

Cornwall application
A detailed planning application for the first phase of the development and outline planning for Eco-Bos proposals to provide more than 5,000 homes (of which up to 40% will be affordable), up to 5,000 new jobs, sustainable transport infrastructure, leisure facilities and green space in West Carclaze and Baal in Cornwall has been submitted.

US brownfield funding
The US Environmental Protection Agency has announced more than $76 million (£46.2 million) in new investments to “redevelop contaminated properties, boost local economies and help create jobs while protecting public health”.

Cluster case study
CL:AIRE has published a case study, Remediation of a former landfill in Coventry: a practical application of the definition of waste – development industry code of practice in a cluster project.

Agency warning
The Environment Agency is urging demolition firms and contractors to carry out full environmental site assessments before beginning works to ensure they prevent pollution spills and contamination.

CIWEM trustees
CIWEM has appointed five new trustees to its governing body, including Mike Summersgill, a partner at SEnSe Associates, specialising in geotechnical and environmental engineering for landfills and brownfield developments. Solvent spill fine A chemical company has been fined £150,000 after a tank collapsed, releasing a large amount of waste solvents and water at a chemical plant in Rye, East Sussex.

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May 2011 headlines (issue 50)

Motherwell row escalates further
North Lanarkshire Council has published its latest findings from site investigations around Watling Street in Motherwell.

Red tape challenge
Dismay has been expressed across the sector as the government has placed all environmental regulation and legislation up for discussion under its “red tape challenge”, a website that “challenges the public to help cut unnecessary regulations”.

All-clear for Moray sawmill site
SEPA to use brown trout as biomonitor species

SFD vital to protecting biodiversity
The European Commission has published a strategy aimed at halting biodiversity loss by 2020. However, the Commission said the stalled Soil Framework Directive will need to be agreed and implemented for the strategy’s goal to be met.

SoBRA to run workshop on risk from lead in soils
A SoBRA technical workshop on the assessment of risks to human health from lead in soil will be held in Manchester on 21 June.

London Earth survey results out
The London Earth survey of the capital’s soils has been completed and published by the British Geological Survey.

GGS celebrates birthday with discount deal
Ground-Gas Solutions is offering clients a discount package for its continuous ground-gas monitoring service as part of the firm’s second birthday celebrations.

European prize for BioReGen
The BioReGen project has been selected as one of 14 best LIFE Environment awards by the European Commission.

Global Soil Partnership launch
The Global Soil Partnership, as proposed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, will be launched in September at the FAO’s headquarters in Rome, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has announced.

3MG freight project secures government funding
The Mersey Multimodal Gateway partnership has secured £9 million from the Regional Growth Fund.

LLoyd-James joins Hydrock from Vertase FLI
Hydrock has appointed Richard Lloyd-James, previously with Vertase FLI, as commercial manager for its remediation contracting business.

Agency SGV FAQs
The Environment Agency has published a set of frequently asked questions regarding soil guideline values.

Quinn joins McAuliffe
Richard Quinn has joined McAuliffe Group as remediation director.

Cash for sprawl
An amendment to the Localism Bill makes “any local finance considerations, so far as material to the application” a material planning consideration for councils.

Asbestos fine for Grove
Grove Environmental has been fined £20,000 after admitting three charges relating to illegally operating a waste site, including one of storing hazardous waste including asbestos in a manner likely to cause pollution to the environment.

Closing illegal landfills
The Environment Agency has experienced some success in combating illegal waste sites in the North East, with 16 closed down in the last three months.

Housebuilding recovery
Government figures show there were just over 29,000 housebuilding starts in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 26% compared with the previous quarter, and the highest quarterly figure for almost three years.

TAC monitoring
Ion Science has launched the Tiger Select for the detection of benzene and total aromatic compounds in a single handheld instrument.

Manhattan Project
Consultancy URS will lead a team remediating the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, originally part of the Manhattan Project during World War II.

Events calendar
Peak Environmental Services has added an events calendar to its website, to highlight the growing number of free and low-cost events relating to the contaminated land field.

Tyre eco earthship
Contractor Merriman is transforming a disused colliery spoil tip in north Nottinghamshire into a country park.

Amec to buy Mactec
Amec has agreed to buy Mactec, a US engineering and environmental services company, from its private equity and other individual shareholders for a cash payment of £172.7 million.

Charterhouse buys ERM
Charterhouse Capital Partners will acquire a majority stake in consultancy ERM as part of a management buy-out from Bridgepoint.

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April 2011 headlines (issue 49)

More trouble at Motherwell estate
Collins Solicitors has made further claims of alleged contamination on a Motherwell housing estate.

Capital grants bidding
A bidding window for the contaminated land capital grants programme has opened, with the Environment Agency accepting bid applications until 27 May.

Monsanto faces Brofiscin bill
The Environment Agency said it is at an “advanced stage” of discussions with Monsanto, Veolia and BP on clean-up of the Brofiscin Quarry in the village of Groesfaen in Rhondda Cynon Taf borough.

Government must support councils to act on land
Environmental Protection UK has called on government to “strengthen the driver for local authorities to act under the contaminated land regime and steer the development of delivery tools” in its guidance consultation response.

CL:AIRE webinar
CL:AIRE is running a free webinar on the SuRF-UK framework for sustainable remediation on 12 May.

Augean results
Hazardous waste management firm Augean has published results for the year ended 31 December .

Revamp for soil reuse code
CL:AIRE has launched version two of its development industry code of practice, which it said will “improve the sustainable and cost-effective development of land including greenfield, brownfield and contaminated land sites, delivering cost, time, social and environmental benefits to those dealing with excavated site materials”.

Pickles demands Hollicombe gasworks EIA
The residents’ group opposing remediation and redevelopment of the Hollicombe gasworks site in Torbay have succeeded in putting the brakes on the project, having contacted the Government Office, which is now demanding an environmental impact assessment is carried out.

EIC 2011 manifesto
The Environmental Industries Commission has launched its 2011 Manifesto for driving growth and competitiveness in the UK’s green economy.

SCLF conference
The Scottish Contaminated Land Forum is planning to hold its second Conference on the advances in land contamination assessment and remediation on 8 September at the University Of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

Hydrock soil treatment centre
Hydrock has opened a soil treatment hub called reM20. The firm said the site would provide property developers, remediation specialists and civils and groundworks contractors with somewhere to send contaminated soils for treatment and reuse without incurring landfill tax.

Ramboll buys Gifford
Ramboll has announced an agreement to acquire UK engineering and environmental consultancy Gifford. Gifford LLP will join Ramboll UK to create a multidisciplinary engineering and consultancy group of approaching 1,000 employees.

Statutory duty review Communities and Local Government is carrying out a review of all statutory duties placed on local authorities.

Insurer warns homebuyers to check land status
Over the next decade around 500,000 homes will be built on brownfield sites that “could pose risks to homeowners and their homes”, according to a report by home insurer LV=.

Delving deep at Dalgety Bay
The Ministry of Defence has committed to a further programme of monitoring and recovery work at Dalgety Bay this year, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is planning to undertake work on the headland at the beach, which may be one possible source of radioactive contamination.

HCA land disposals
The Homes and Communities Agency has published details of the first sites to be released through the accelerated approach to land disposals, announced in the budget.

Linden Homes
Midas Homes, Gerald Wood Homes and Rosemullion Homes are to be renamed as Linden Homes South West as part of parent company Galliford Try’s rebranding plans.

Telluric technology field trials
Cardiff-based land remediation company Telluric Land Remediation said it is “on the brink of developing a breakthrough product that is safe enough to eat and will revolutionise the way contaminated land is brought back to health”.

No sign of ten tonnes of uranium at Hinkley
Despite savage budget cuts and the atmosphere of austerity in the public sector, the Environment Agency has spent a considerable sum refuting the claim in a report by Green Audit that soil at the Hinkley Point nuclear powerstation is contaminated with ten tonnes of “enriched uranium reactor fuel”.

Budget 2011
In his budget statement, chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said: “We will retain the existing controls on greenbelt, but we will remove the nationally imposed targets on the use of previously developed land.”

Funding for Swansea uni scheme
Planning permission has been granted and funding from the Welsh Assembly Government confirmed for a Swansea University scheme to build a £200 million science and innovation campus on a site to the east of Swansea Docks.

Illegal waste dumping
A Welsh skip hire firm’s owner has been convicted of illegally dumping tens of thousands of tonnes of waste, saving up to £1.5 million in landfill charges.

Ravenscraig gains business plan approval
The Scottish Government has granted provisional approval for North Lanarkshire Council's £73 million business plan to allow construction of infrastructure on the long-awaited Ravenscraig development, a contaminated former steelworks site.

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March 2011 headlines (issue 48)

Scotland may set pollutant limits
Scotland may publish a suite of concentrations above which land should be considered contaminated land under Part 2A, Scottish Government environment directorate officer Francis Brewis has told CLB.

NICOLE conference
A NICOLE meeting titled Operating windows for site characterisation will take place from 25 to 27 May in Copenhagen.

Hollicombe permission granted
Planning permission has finally been granted for redevelopment of the Hollicombe Gasworks in Torbay.

Hydrock wins Hinkley C asbestos contract
Hydrock has “beaten off stiff opposition” to win a major EDF contract to carry out remediation at the site of the proposed Hinkley C reactor, at Bridgwater in Somerset.

£385,000 fine for Wright’s death
Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings has been fined £385,000 having been found guilty of corporate manslaughter following the death of junior geologist Alex Weight when a trench collapsed in September 2008.

Business units to replace Etruria gasholder
An application to knock down the Etruria gasholder and build 11 business units in its place by Partshare has been submitted to Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

CL:AIRE to launch CoP Version 2
CL:AIRE will launch version two of its Definition of waste code of practice in London on 30 March.

WSP Group pushes active transfer solutions
Despite what it described as “a slower trading environment in our core market of contaminated land and remediation” WSP Group said in its final results, published at the end of February, it was “delighted to conclude our market-leading active transfer solution for contaminated land risk outsourcing at a former Kodak facility in Merseyside”.

EIC launches asbestos survey
The Environmental Industries Commission is carrying out a survey on key issues relating to asbestos in soil.

Froggatt to chair CL:AIRE board of trustees
Richard Froggatt has been appointed chair of CL:AIRE’s board of trustees.

All-clear for former Cannock Chase Landfill
Housing built on a former landfill site in Cannock has been tested for contamination and found to present no risk to human health by Cannock Chase Council.

Brown Dalgety Bay letter mix-up
MP Gordon Brown has written to defence secretary Liam Fox about the radioactive contamination at Dalgety Bay, earning him the Scottish Sun headline, Brown in fury over radiation clean-up.

SoBRA PAH report
Chair of SoBRA and editor of its summer workshop report on human health risk assessment and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Dr Mary Harris of MRH Consultants, has spoken to CLB about the report (available by emailing info@sobra.org.uk).

Coalfields review
Locally led regeneration is the central feature of the government’s new approach to coalfields regeneration, according to minister for housing and local government Grant Shapps in the coalition’s response to the Review of coalfields regeneration chaired by Labour MP Michael Clapham and completed in September.

BS10175 workshop
It is expected that the revised British Standard Investigation of potentially contaminated sites – code of practice (BS10175) will be published soon.

Vaux Brewery site
Sunderland City Council has bought the former Vaux Brewery site. Agreement had already been reached that the council, One North East and the Homes and Communities Agency would buy the site from Tesco.

Woolwich site sold
The London Development Agency has sold its remaining land in and around the Royal Arsenal site in Woolwich to development partner Berkeley Homes.

Brofiscin Quarry
The Environment Agency is making progress in establishing liability for the contamination of the Brofiscin Quarry. It said: “We have completed our extensive enquiries to identify those we consider should be held responsible under the contaminated land laws and be held liable for the cost of remediating Brofiscin Quarry.

SD:SPUR event
CIRIA’s SD:SPUR (site decommissioning: sustainable practices in the use of resources) network will hold an event titled Nuclear decommissioning and the waste hierarchy: where we are, challenges and issues in Birmingham on 11 May.

Midas promotions
Housebuilder Midas Group – which is to redevelop the Hollicombe Gasworks site in Torbay – has made three promotions within its management team

Scotland funding
More funding will be made available for large-scale regeneration in Scotland over the next year, the Scottish Government has announced.

Superfund sites
The US Environmental Protection Agency has added ten hazardous waste sites to the national priorities list of superfund sites and is proposing to include 15 additional sites.

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January/February 2011 headlines (issue 47)

Cotswold Geotechnical guilty
Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings has become the first company to be convicted of the offence of corporate manslaughter following the death of 27-year-old Alex Wright on 5 September 2008.

Remediation report
CL:AIRE has published the Defra-commissioned Contaminated land remediation report. CL:AIRE said the aim of the research was to summarise understanding and utilisation of remediation techniques, identify current and likely factors influencing their selection and set out the economic, environmental and social costs and benefits of each technology.

Slough determines school former gasworks site
Slough Borough Council determined the Colnbrook Church of England School as contaminated land under Part 2A on 29 January.

Primary school soil testing
The Highland Council is carrying out a site investigation in the grounds of Grantown Primary School.

Moray checks housing estate on old sawmill
Moray Council is carrying out ground investigations at a Mosstodloch housing development that was built on the site of a former sawmill.

Motherwell works resume following big freeze
North Lanarkshire Council’s latest round of soil sampling at the Motherwell housing estate that has been the centre of a controversy over allegations of contaminated land has been completed after a hiatus caused by severe weather.

VHE bags Jersey park contract
The States of Jersey has appointed VHE to carry out a £5.2 million contract for construction of the Millennium Town Park in St Helier.

DSRL plans £2 million Dounreay dump clean-up
Dounreay Site Restoration has announced a £2 million plan to remediate and restore an area of land designated a rubble dump during the construction and operation phases of the site.

Abatech UK now Sirius Midlands
Midlands-based consulting engineering firm Abatech UK has become part of the Sirius Engineering Group and is now trading as Sirius Midlands.

Czarnecki joins McAuliffe Group as director
Adam Czarnecki has joined the McAuliffe Group as group board director, “marking our expansion in the North West”, the company said.

YCLF meets on radioactivity
The Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum held a technical meeting on “radioactive, explosive and gas hazards from contaminated land” on 11 February at the University of Sheffield.

Guidance on open space opportunities for PDL
CIRIA is launching guidance titled Open space opportunities for previously developed land (C694) on 1 March at the Ecobuild exhibition and conference in London.

Rochdale rejects Turner Brothers application
Rochdale Borough Council has rejected a planning application to develop the controversial asbestos-contaminated Turner Brothers site in the Spodden Valley by owner MMC Estates.

Worries over Part 2A revision
Environmental Protection UK land quality policy officer Lisa Crews has called on all contaminated land practitioners to respond to the current Defra consultation on revision of the statutory guidance for Part 2A.

Keltbray Group moves away from landfill
The Keltbray Group, which describes itself as the UK’s largest specialist demolition and civil engineering contractor, has “widened its environmental management capability” by acquiring Golf Environmental.

Bailey joins WSP
Ian Bailey has been appointed strategic director at consultancy WSP Environment & Energy.

SGV and TOX docs
The Environment Agency has told CLB it has completed TOX and soil guideline value reports for benzo(a)pyrene, chromium and nickel, which will be published “within the next few months”.

European soil report
The European Commission has published the European environment – state and outlook 2010 report for soil.

Guidance published
The Food and Environment Research Agency, on behalf of the Cabinet Office, has published strategic national guidance titled the decontamination of buildings, infrastructure and open environment exposed to chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear materials.

SoBRA PAH report
The Society of Brownfield Risk Assessment has published its summer workshop report on human health risk assessment and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Irvine Bay project
Work is underway on the site of a £70 million development site aimed at helping to transform Irvine Bay.

CL:AIRE bulletins
CL:AIRE has published technology demonstration project bulletin TDP28 and research bulletin RB13.

UKWIR pipes guidance
UK Water Industry Research has published Guidance for the selection of water supply pipes to be used in brownfield sites.

Sludge impacts
The red sludge that leaked from a Hungarian aluminium factory across a number of villages is less damaging to agriculture than was previously feared, according to Dutch scientists.

Lilly joins VHE
Remediation contractor VHE has appointed Steve Lilly to the new role of construction director.

SKM role for Pike
Sinclair Knight Merz has appointed Jon Pike chief operating officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

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December 2010 headlines (issue 46)

HCA budget and staff halved
The Homes and Communities Agency will be reduced to half its size with funding cuts of £1.9 billion for 13 regeneration schemes across England.

Europe has three million contaminated sites
The European Union could have three million contaminated sites – 250,000 of which require urgent remediation – according to the European Environment Agency’s European environment: state and outlook 2010 report, which said: “Due to more than 200 years of industrialisation, soil contamination is a widespread problem in Europe.

Wales ends grants
The Welsh Assembly Government has scrapped capital grants for contaminated land.

Statutory guidance
Defra and the Welsh Assembly Government have published their consultation on revisions to the statutory guidance for the Part 2A regime – just in time for Christmas.

WSP sells laboratory to Alcontrol
Consultancy WSP Environment & Energy has sold its soil testing laboratory to Alcontrol for an undisclosed sum.

Atkins review approves Hollicombe proposals
An independent review of Midas Homes’ remediation plans for the Hollicombe gasworks site has been carried out for Atkins on behalf of Torbay Council.

VHE bags second Cardiff job
VHE Construction is carrying out a further remediation project for Cardiff Council, following on from the St Donats job.

McAuliffe scores Wolverhampton voucher
Wolverhampton-based environmental contractor McAuliffe Group is the first company to receive funding of £5,000 through a University of Wolverhampton scheme. The remediation firm will use the funding to gain ISO 14001.

Plymouth Lipson Vale funding
Plymouth City Council has announced it received just over £400,000 in the final contaminated land capital grants funding window of 2010 to remove contaminated soil from playing fields in Lipson Vale.

ERM project at new Coronation Street home
A former vegetable oil processing facility is to become the new home of Coronation Street following a series of specialist studies by consultancy ERM’s Manchester office.

Water and waste worst performers
The waste and water sectors continue to cause the Environment Agency the most concern over pollution incidents according to its annual Greener business report.

LGR publishes jargon-cutting planning guides
Local Government Regulation (formerly Lacors) has published two guides “designed to cut through the wealth of environmental and planning jargon to provide officers with a clear overview of the key legislation that shapes the work of both professions”.

Poole to sample pottery site
Borough of Poole Council is to carry out soil testing at a former pottery site in Parkstone.

Forum aims to improve minewater quality
The South Derbyshire Minewater Forum is investigating what can be done to improve water quality at sites near former mines in north west Leicestershire and South Derbyshire.

Proposed extension to Coal Authority powers
The Coal Authority to be allowed to treat any contaminated waters.

Beyond the spending review
Andrew Parsons, director of Glasgow-based IKM Consulting provides a bleak outlook for the contaminated land sector in the wake of the spending review

UKAS accreditation
Derwentside Environmental Testing Services has been granted UKAS accreditation for the quantification of asbestos in soil. It is also now offering speciated mercury analysis.

Broadmeadow
Teignbridge District Council has announced Morrisons as development partner as part of its plan to regenerate the Broadmeadow area of Teignmouth.

Student paper awards
PhD students from Cambridge University's geotechnical and environmental group, Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon and Reginald Kogbara, were among seven recipients of the outstanding student paper awards at the Fifth International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology, organised by the American Academy of Sciences and held in Houston, Texas.

Cotgrave Colliery
Rushcliffe Borough Council has granted planning permission for 470 homes, plus land for employment use and open space on the former Cotgrave Colliery site.

Planning for schools
Environmental Protection UK has published its response to government’s Planning for schools development consultation.

YCLF meeting
The thirteenth Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum meeting was the first joint meeting with Royal Town Planning Institute Yorkshire, and celebrated YCLF’s third anniversary.

CL:AIRE seeks site
CL:AIRE has been contacted by a technology developer who requires a site to undertake a CL:AIRE Technology Demonstration Project.

Locking Parklands
The Homes and Communities Agency and developer St Modwen have signed a development agreement that gives the go ahead to start work on the first phase of housing at the former RAF Locking site, near Weston-super-Mare.

EPA clean-up plan
The US Environmental Protection Agency has published a draft integrated clean-up initiative plan, a “three-year strategy to focus on the agency’s land clean-up programmes”.

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November 2010 headlines (issue 45)

Funding granted for 75 projects
One hundred and five bids for capital grants funding were received by the Environment Agency in the latest round, of which 83 were deemed to have qualified for cash.

Progress on CLEA reports
The Agency said work on CLEA is ongoing, with two people writing the six reports outstanding in the most recent tranche of planned publications, with lead – the report contaminated land practitioners are particularly keen to see released – one of the six.

PPS23 revision plans
Planning Policy Statement 23 will be significantly slimmed down, Mark Plummer, minerals, waste and pollution control team leader within DCLG, told the Environmental Protection UK autumn contaminated land update.

Lincoln uncovers contamination at Roman Wharf
The City of Lincoln Council’s programme of Part 2A investigations has uncovered contamination at Roman Wharf, a residential estate on the site of a former fertiliser works.

Watling Street drinking water safe
North Lanarkshire Council has continued its efforts to reassure residents of a Motherwell housing estate that land contamination is not creating health problems with testing of drinking water after around 50 residents expressed concerns about its safety at a public meeting held at the beginning of October.

Innovative gasworks clean up about to begin
Remediation of a former gasworks in Newport, South Wale, including the first use of surfactant flushing in an aquifer contaminated with coal tar, is about to begin.

No odour statutory nuisance at Hauxton site
Odours from the remediation of the former chemical factory site in Hauxton that has been the source of constant complaints from local residents does not constitute a statutory nuisance, a six-month investigation by South Cambridgeshire District Council has established.

Asbestos in Gildersome gardens
Asbestos has been found in gardens on the site of the former Springfield textile mill in Gildersome, near Leeds.

Coles sets out plans for statutory guidance review
Defra head of contaminated land Tom Coles gave Environmental Protection UK’s autumn contaminated land update details of the review of Part 2A statutory guidance.

Buried waste case
The operators of a North Devon scrapyard and skip hire company have been found guilty of illegally burying and burning waste including asbestos.

Capita contract win
Capita Symonds has been appointed to the Wales and West Utilities’ environmental services framework and project services framework.

Radioactive storage
The government has taken delivery of an initial geological report for West Cumbria. The study looked at the Copeland and Allerdale areas, where a local partnership is talking to government about the siting process for a deep geological disposal facility for nuclear waste.

Wiseman criticises land sector
Andrew Wiseman, head of environmental law at Stephenson Harwood, has criticised the contaminated land sector for failing to convince government the issue is a priority at the Environmental Protection UK autumn workshop.

Full scale of Defra cuts set out by Maude
The full scale of the cuts facing Defra have been published by minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude.

Agency guidance docs
The Environment Agency has published horizontal guidance, which provides information relevant to all sectors regulated under the Environmental Permitting Regulations on issues including the protection of land.

SABRE bulletins
Five SABRE bulletins and Research bulletin 11 are now available to download from CL:AIRE’s website.

Final phase of Farnham works
Waverley Borough Council has received Environment Agency funding for what it hopes will be a final round of site investigations at the former Farnham gasworks site.

Environ wins Edie’s consultant of the year
Environ has won contaminated land consultant of the year at the Edie awards for environmental excellence.

CL:AIRE CoP register
CL:AIRE is keeping a register of materials and services linked to the Definition of Waste Code of Practice and the Cluster project.

Chemtest appointment
Chemtest has appointed Emer Durkan to head up the firm’s Irish operations.

Schools development consultation
The Department for Communities and Local Government has issued a consultation titled Planning for schools development that proposes changes to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 “aimed at freeing-up the planning system in relation to schools development” as part of the government’s commitment to “give parents, teachers, charities and local communities the chance to set up schools”.

Elba Park opens after £25 million remediation
The Homes and Communities Agency has handed control of the 52 hectare Elba Park, on the site of the former Lambton colliery and cokeworks, to the Land Trust.

Soil directive
The Soil Framework Directive remains on the negotiating table, but there is still no sign of agreement being reached

Water pollution study
Farmers are to be involved in a study to establish the best ways of halting water

ERICA promises single site value
European researchers have published a final report on the Ecotoxicological Risk Index for a Chemical Assessment in the October edition of Environment International.

CL:AIRE gains awarding organisation status
CL:AIRE has been given approval to become an awarding organisation by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation.

MP attacks land sales
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop has attacked news the coalition government has decided to sell off land on Teesside owned by the regional development agency, One North East, and to move previously regionally based decision making on how European development cash is spent to London.

Land changes hit bees
The decline in pollinator numbers may be due in part to land contamination due to air pollution depositing nitrogenous compounds that like a fertiliser, allowing more competitive species to crowd out nectar providing plants, according to a study by the Countryside Survey Partnership.

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October 2010 headlines (issue 44)

TCE found at Motherwell site
The war of words between solicitor Des Collins and North Lanarkshire Council over potential contamination at a Motherwell housing estate continues after the council found high concentrations of trichloroethylene in one of six boreholes dug in open ground in an attempt to reassure residents that their homes are safe.

Part 2A extended to non-naturally occurring radon
The contaminated land regime has been extended to include non-naturally occurring radon.

Agency to be reformed
A total of 192 quangos are to be scrapped by the coalition government, it is now confirmed.

SEPA pushes DE on Dalgety Bay
SEPA will write to Defence Estates requesting it plans and implements a further programme of radioactive particle recovery from Dalgety Bay following a meeting of the Dalgety Bay forum at which DE provided an update on the progress of the monitoring and radioactive contamination recovery work being undertaken by them at the Fife beach.

Communicating risk from contaminated land
SNIFFER has published guidance on communicating risk from contaminated land.

Pioneering minewater pilot
The Environment Agency Wales is carrying out a “pioneering” minewater remediation scheme at the Cwm Rheidol mine near Aberystwyth.

Buckingham Group begins works at Eastlands
Site preparation work has begun on a 6.88 hectare plot at Eastlands next to the City of Manchester stadium.

Pleasley Colliery project complete
Work is complete on a multi-million pound project to remediate and regenerate a disused colliery site near Bolsover in Derbyshire.

CL:AIRE to illuminate Olympics mystery works
CL:AIRE will hold a conference titled the Story of the enabling works at the Olympic park on 4 November in London.

Scotland launches national land use strategy
The Scottish government has launched a consultation on a strategy that sets out, for the first time, a “high-level, long-term agenda for sustainable land use across Scotland”.

HauxAir concerns addressed
The organisations responsible for regulation and remediation of the former Bayer CropScience chemicals manufacturing facility at Hauxton in Cambridgeshire have issued a “unified and detailed response” to the concerns about health impacts from odours from the site raised by campaign group HauxAir.

Pitiful fine for pollution incident
Heathrow Hydrant Operating Company has been fined a paltry £40,000 after severely polluting groundwater beneath Heathrow airport with at least 139,000 litres of Jet A-1 aviation fuel.

YCLF members descend on Avenue Coking Works
The Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum has held its first on-site meeting at the Avenue Chemical and Coking Works remediation project near Chesterfield in Derbyshire.

Wales to cut regulators
Environment minister Jane Davidson has proposed merging the Environment Agency Wales, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Forestry Commission Wales in A living Wales, a “framework for managing the Welsh environment, countryside and seas”.

Buried asbestos testing
Testing has been carried at a former power station site in Hamworthy, Poole, after asbestos was found during excavation work.

Hints on RDA carve-up
Business and enterprise minister Mark Prisk has indicated the future of some functions of the soon-to-be defunct regional development agencies in Parliament.

Small pollution fine
South Devon businessman Anthony Small has been fined £13,500 for failing to remove thousands of tonnes of waste from a site near Newton Abbot.

RDA instant budget cut
The One North East regional development agency has announced a £32.9 million package of cuts to its budget in this financial year to meet government requirements.

Coalfields review
The Coalfields Regeneration Review Board has published A review of coalfields regeneration.

St Modwen permission
Remediation will begin now brownfield specialist St Modwen has gained planning consent for the proposed redevelopment of a former glassworks site into a £10 million mixed-use development in Sunderland.

CIRIA asbestos event
CIRIA will hold an event, Dealing with Asbestos found in ground investigation, in London on 15 November.

Lead dietary intake
The joint Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and World Health Organisation expert committee on food additives has withdrawn its previously established provisional tolerable weekly intake for lead and not replaced it on the grounds it cannot establish a safe threshold for intake

HPA demise statement
The Health Protection Agency has issued a statement in the wake of the announcement it will cease to exist.

Gill out of retirement
Jim Gill, retired former chief executive of economic development company Liverpool Vision is to take up a part-time advisory role supporting the council on economic development and regeneration including city regeneration projects.

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Aug/Sept 2010 headlines (issue 43)

Scotland to revise stat guidance
The Scottish Government has formally announced it intends to review and revise the statutory guidance for Part 2A in Scotland.

Ministerial approval
Following the post-election change of ministers, Defra had confirmed the review of the Part 2A statutory guidance has now been approved and will definitely go ahead.

Waverley hopes to walk away from Farnham site
Waverley Borough Council is hoping a final phase of testing at the Farnham gasworks site will rule out the need for a Part 2A determination and associated remediation.

RBWM pre-empts dust problems
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has served a dust abatement notice on the Shanly Group and its contractors working to remediate Badnell’s Pit.

BSI revises investigation code of practice
BSI is revising Investigation of potentially contaminated sites – code of practice.

Special site for Hucknall siding
The Environment Agency has declared a special site under Part 2A on a former railway cutting that had been used as a tip in Hucknall, following site investigations in partnership with Ashfield District Council.

Monkstown plant still going strong a decade on
Queen’s University Belfast researchers have recommended modifications to extend the lifetime of Europe’s oldest commercially installed zero-valent iron permeable reactive barrier, installed in 1995 by Keller Ground Engineering and Golder Associates to treat contamination beneath Nortel Networks’ site at Monkstown.

Fern’s promise in arsenic battle
American researchers are working to isolate a gene that allows a type of fern to tolerate high levels of arsenic, Purdue University researchers hope to create plants that can remediate soils and waters contaminated by the toxic metal.

Supermarket to fund playing field clean-up
A draft Broadmeadow Regeneration Vision has been published by Teignbridge Council, which includes a scheme to remediate contaminated land, enabling closed playing fields to be brought back in to use.

North Lanarkshire court threat
The lawyer who represented claimants in the Corby case is threatening to take North Lanarkshire Council to court over claims it failed to ensure remediation of a Motherwell site was carried out prior to development.

Landmark buys Argyll Environmental
Argyll Environmental, which provides environmental reports, risk assessment and compliance audits to legal, financial and property professionals, has been acquired by Landmark.

Atkins strengthens land regeneration team
Consultancy Atkins has “strengthened its position in the regeneration sector” with new appointments to its contaminated land team.

LGA allotment plea
The Local Government Association has called for landfill tax revenue to be used to create allotments on derelict land. However, Environmental Protection UK said while it endorses this proposal, it wished to “take the opportunity to remind potential local food growers that healthy food comes from healthy soil”.

Mucking landfill plans
Essex Wildlife Trust is working to transform Mucking landfill site into a “living landscape” after raising over £100,000 to regenerate the site into a nature park.

Drakelow Park approved
South Derbyshire District Council has approved a major brownfield regeneration project at Drakelow Park, three kilometres south of Burton-upon-Trent.

Longbridge investment
Approval has been granted for £3.7 million investment in the redevelopment of the former MG Rover site in Longbridge.

RCEP falls victim to cuts
The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution will be abolished as part of “reform” to over 30 of Defra’s arm’s length bodies announced by environment secretary Caroline Spelman in order to help reach the government’s targets to cut public spending.

St Modwen makes profit
Brownfield regeneration specialist St Modwen has announced a return to profits and net asset value growth, and a resumption of dividends in its half-year results for the six months ended 31 May 2010.

Waste dumping fine
Construction company Minster Paving and Construction Limited was fined £22,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,800 at Grantham Magistrates Court for dumping containers of hazardous waste on land in Cranwell.

CIRIA seeks funding
CIRIA is looking for funding to produce guidance on remedial and mitigation options for volatile organic compounds.

URS buys Scott Wilson
The US engineering giant URS Corporation has completed the acquisition of Scott Wilson Group, a London-based infrastructure engineering and construction company.

Groundwater report
The Environment Agency has published Underground, under threat: the state of groundwater in England and Wales.

Wirral Waters approval
Wirral Council has granted planning consent to Peel’s Wirral Waters mixed use development in Birkenhead and Wallasey.

Garden grabbing
The government has claimed recently published figures on land use endorse its decision to change planning policy guidance to ban so-called “garden grabbing”, according to Communities and Local Government.

JESSICA fund launch
A £50m fund has been launched to help kickstart a range of land regeneration projects in Scotland. Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA) is a policy initiative of the European Commission, supported by the European Investment Bank

SAGTA appoints chair
SAGTA has appointed Dr Richard Boyle of the Homes and Communities Agency and Frank Evans of National Grid Property to the non-executive roles of chairman and deputy chairman, respectively.

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July 2010 headlines (issue 42)

Grant window open until August
The second bidding window for the contaminated land capital projects programme is open until 12 August.

South Cambs declares Cottenham special site
South Cambridgeshire District Council last month took action to designate land at 34 Lambs Lane, Cottenham, a special site under Part 2A.

Stolen pump plea
Isle of Anglesey County Council has appealed to the public for help in securing the return of a vital pump stolen from the Henwaith settlement ponds, near Penysarn, which was designated contaminated land last year after raised levels of arsenic and lead were found at the former copper mine.

Howard sets out principles
Environment Agency senior advisor Trevor Howard has explained the Guiding principles for land contamination, announced in last month’s issue, to CLB.

Northern Ireland takes action on soil reuse
Guidance on the sustainable re-use of greenfield soil in construction has been published by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

Agency underwhelms on radon
The Health Protection Agency has decided against cutting its radon “action level” in the wake of last year’s advice from the World Health Organisation.

Spanish presidency fails on soil directive
The European Environment Bureau has published an assessment of the environmental results of the Spanish presidency of the EU, which ran from January to June of this year.

Study to probe blood lead levels
The Health Protection Agency is to carry out research into the extent of lead poisoning among children in the UK and Ireland.

Site sought for worm bioavailability project
Kevin Cheynier, a PhD student with the earthworm research group within the School of Built and Natural Environment at the University of Central Lancashire, is seeking a suitable contaminated site to carry out experiments aimed at increasing the understanding of the effects of soil pollutants on earthworms and their ecology, focusing specifically on the bioavailability of pollutants to the worms.

HPA assuages locals’ odour fears
Despite worried locals, it is “very unlikely” remediation of the former Bayer CropScience site Hauxton will cause health problems for residents, the Health Protection Agency has said after analysis of the most recent 28-day monitoring results for air quality around the site.Works are being carried out by Vertase FLI for South Cambridgeshire Council

Excellent CEEQUAL score for Avenue clean-up
The Avenue Coking Works project has received an excellent rating under the civil engineering environmental quality assessment and awards scheme.

Having the heretical debate
CLB talks to John Waters, ERM’s commercial director and head of contaminated site management for EMEA, about making remediation more sustainable – even if it means rethinking risk assessment

Liverpool guidance
Liverpool City Council’s environmental protection unit has revised its developer and consultant’s guide for assessment of potentially contaminated land since its last publication in 2008.

ELQF event
The East Land Quality Forum will be holding an event titled Brownfield regeneration in challenging times in Peterborough on 30 September.

BSI consultation
BSI is consulting on a draft code of practice for the investigation of potentially contaminated land. The closing date for comments is 6 September.

NDA cuts jobs
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will shed 30% of its 300-strong workforce in an organisational shake-up.

New name for LRT
The Land Restoration Trust has become the Land Trust.

Hammonds team
Hammonds has expanded its safety, health, environment and regulatory group with the appointment of the former national head of the environment group at Eversheds and two senior environmental lawyers.

SEPA investigation
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is investigating accusations in a local paper that soil contaminated with oil and diesel has been dumped on the foreshore at Portgordon.

Winter reading
Remediation of former manufactured gas plants and other coal tar sites, by Allen Hatheway, will be available from January 2011.

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June 2010 headlines (issue 41)

Huge cut for grant funding
The government has cut £7.5 million from the contaminated land capital grant budget for 2010/11, from an initial allocation of £17.5 million to a revised budget of £10 million.

Consultancy earnings plummet in 2009
Consultancies’ income from contaminated land plummeted by 20% last year, according to research by Environment Analyst.

Guiding principles
The Environment Agency has published Guiding principles for land contamination, which replace the guidance Environment Agency requirements for land contamination reports.

Garden grabbing ban in place
The government has taken action on the long-debated and decidedly trivial issue of ‘garden grabbing’.

Claire Gregory becomes head of environment
Claire Gregory has been appointed head of environment and regulatory at leading north west England law firm Brabners Chaffe Street. Gregory joins from Hammonds, where has spent the last six years.

NWSA boosts low carbon tech
As part of the northwest climate change action plan, the Northwest Regional Development Agency is offering small to medium sized enterprises involved in land remediation access to £2 million of grant funding to develop and demonstrate innovative technologies that reduce carbon emissions.

Corby impossible without CFAs lawyer says
Des Collins, the lawyer who led the legal action against Corby Borough Council in the birth defects case, has called on the government to reject proposals in the Jackson review of civil litigation costs to remove conditional fee arrangements.

South Lanarkshire sets out 2011 spending
South Lanarkshire Council has agreed its funding for contaminated land works for 2010/11.

Corby costs confirmed
Corby Borough Council has confirmed the enormous cost of fighting and then agreeing compensation in the birth defects case in the High Court, relating to remediation of the town’s steelworks site.

Wales planning policy
The Welsh Assembly Government has published Planning policy Wales, which “contains current land use planning policy and provides the policy framework for the effective preparation of local planning authorities’ development plans”.

Cranes demolished
The remains of two cranes on the former Swan Hunter site have been demolished using explosives. Mayor Linda Arkley said: “I am very disappointed that we have reached a position where these two cranes – important landmarks for the borough – are being demolished.

Groundwater monitor
Long-term continuous monitoring of groundwater could be streamlined with a technology developed at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Clean-up in a post-Corby world
A massive post-Corby public relations campaign has been launched to keep the public informed about the progress of remediation at the former Bayer CropScience site in Hauxton.

RDAs strike back
The regional development agencies have struck a blow in self-defence following a chain of attacks on their effectiveness and accountability from Conservative MPs.

Soil testing guidance
The Environment Agency has published guidance on the determination of sulphide in soils and similar matrices using a variety of techniques, which updates the earlier version published in 1983.

Letter to minister
Environmental Protection UK and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health have written to Defra minister Richard Benyon on the subject of cuts to contaminated land capital grants.

Lacors publication
Lacors has published A clean bill of health, which summarises for councillors, and other local decision makers, the health effects of pollution and what councils and their partners can do to improve the health of their communities. I

Buncefield pollution
A number of rulings have been made regarding groundwater pollution from the Buncefield fire, alongside charges relating to health and safety.

Permeability testing
Vermasperm has launched a “highly sensitive permeability measurement system instrument” for testing landfill liner materials.

US groundwater
Over 20% of untreated water samples from 932 public wells across the USA contained at least one contaminant at levels of potential health concern, according to a study by the US Geological Survey.

Yorkshire RDA
CEO Thea Stein has been appointed chief executive of Yorkshire Forward.

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May 2010 headlines (issue 39)

Study probes clean-up progress
Under the previous government Environmental Protection UK was awarded a research project for Defra titled Assessment and remediation of contaminated land through the planning system.

High Court decision in Leeds planning fumble
Leeds City Council will not appeal against the High Court’s decision against it in the Technoprint case.

Radioactive land fears
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has received a letter from Argyll and Bute Council advising there may be reasonable grounds to carry out an inspection of the Machrihanish Airfield under SEPA’s role in radioactively contaminated land.

Agency declares special sites
The Environment Agency has declared special sites under Part 2A on the former Windsor Street Gasworks site in Aston, Birmingham.

Paignton residents oppose gasworks plan
Locals are opposing plans to redevelop the Hollicombe gasworks in Paignton.

Compensation for Corby kids
Corby Borough Council has agreed an out-of-court settlement with 19 young people who suffered birth defects they allege occurred as a result of the council’s remediation of the town’s former British Steel plant in the 1980s and 1990s.

Second hearing for Northern Ireland land bill
Northern Ireland environment minister Edwin Poots has outlined proposals for legislation dealing with waste management and contaminated land. Second stage debates have now been held in the Northern Ireland Assembly on the Waste and Contaminated Land (Amendment) Bill.

Watling Street at a standstill
North Lanarkshire Council pollution control manager Charles Penman has met with the North Motherwell Community Partnership Forum, along with colleagues from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, with the aim of informing the public about ongoing investigations at Watling Street, Motherwell.

First use of GasClam on live remediation site
VertaseFLI has become the first firm to use the new generation of GasClam – an in situ high frequency monitor for measurement of total volatile organic compounds – on an active remediation site.

Big claims for STAR combustion
University of Edinburgh researchers have developed the self-sustaining treatment for active remediation (STAR) method, which they claim could reduce the cost of cleaning up areas contaminated with industrial waste by around half.

Sirius Group completes paper mill clean-up
Remediation and site investigation firm the Sirius Group, has completed clean-up of the site of the former Donside paper mill at Tillydrone, Aberdeen.

Llanwern gasworks S106 signed
Developer St Modwen has signed a Section 106 agreement with Newport City Council that will allow the £1 billion regeneration of the former Llanwern steelworks, which will include 4,000 homes and a business park, to go ahead.

CIEH publishes draft competency framework
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health is consulting on a draft competence framework for local authority contaminated land regulators.

The consequences of Corby
CLB discusses the settlement of the Corby case with Paula Whittell, partner at Berrymans Lace Mawer, who acted for Corby Borough Council (pdf of feature here (and if you like what you see, why not subscribe!))

Liverpool guidance
Liverpool City Council’s contaminated land team has revised a 2004 guidance document on the verification of contaminated land cover systems. The council said the revisions reflect the experience of the team over the last few years in reviewing and assessing validation reports submitted by the development industry in compliance with planning conditions.

Waste prosecution
A trail of blue-black liquid in Flowton Brook and Belstead Brook, Ipswich, led Environment Agency officers to an illegal waste site run by Paul Arthur Fenton.

Scotland publication
The Scottish government has published Environmental Protection Act 1990: Part IIA Contaminated Land The Radioactive Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2007 Statutory Guidance. l www.scotland.gov.uk/ Publications/2008/03 /31102033/0

East land forum
The Environment Agency has launched an East Land Quality Forum in the spirit of the Yorkshire and North East contaminated land forums.

Call for cyanide ban
MEPs want the European Commission to propose a complete ban on the use of cyanide mining technologies in the EU before the end of 2011. They also believe mining projects in the EU involving cyanide technology should receive no support from the Commission or member states.

Chinnor cement works
The derelict Chinnor cement works will be redeveloped following a £2.8 million grant from the Homes and Communities Agency.

Waste offence fine
An Airdrie company director has been fined £9,000 for the deposit of controlled waste on his property.

Soil science cluster
The Soil Technology Research Cluster is a new coalition of soil research projects funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework

Greenway funding
Works costing around £320,000 to create a 700 metre greenway through an area of derelict land at Within Grove, Huncoat, is underway.

Vibration equipment
Vibration instrumentation on hire from Ashtead Technology has helped a firm of engineering contractors ensure remediation of contaminated land did not cause structural damage to nearby properties.

Sellafield waste error
The Environment Agency has carried out an investigation after five bags containing radioactive waste from Sellafield was dumped at the Lillyhall landfill near Workington after a faulty scanner passed it as safe.

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April 2010 headlines (issue 38)

NLC speaks out on press reports
North Lanarkshire Council has acted emphatically to quash reports in the press that contamination from a former landfill site under a housing estate in Motherwell is causing health problems for locals after an alleged explosion supposedly released pollutants during a site investigation.

Olympics land clean up not fit for purpose
Green London Assembly member Jenny Jones claims to have uncovered evidence further remediation of the Olympics site will be required before it is fit for use for some forms of housing.

Groundwater paper
SEPA has published a position statement Assigning Groundwater Assessment Criteria for Pollutant Inputs (WAT-PS-10-01).

Defra justifies guidance review
Defra has explained its decision to review the statutory Part 2A guidance and set out a provisional timetable for action. Progress on Part 2A has been poor, partly due to a lack of clarity as to how the regime works in practice.

Bishopton planning approval
Renfrewshire Council’s planning and economic development policy board has granted planning permission for the remediation programme and construction of a dedicated landfill facility on the site of the former Royal Ordnance Factory at Bishopton.

Sunderland baffled by play area controversy
Washington East councillors have held a public meeting over plans by Sunderland City Council to build a children’s play area on the spoil heap of the former Glebe Colliery as part of plans to create or revamp 28 sites with £2.5 million of Play Pathfinder funding.

SuRF sustainability framework
The UK Sustainable Remediation Forum has published A Framework for Assessing the Sustainability of Soil and Groundwater Remediation, which it said is the “first ever authoritative framework highlighting the importance of incorporating sustainability issues right at the forefront of the remediation and redevelopment process” and is aimed at setting a benchmark for improved remediation and developing better places on brownfield land.

Angus takes on two more sites of concern
Angus Council is carrying out investigations at two further sites of concern within the district. Works have begun at the former Montrose airfield, which was used for fuel storage. A second project is planned for the Eastmill Road Caravan Park at Brechin to determine if groundwater is contaminated by waste from a former battery manufacturer.

Amec expands with Entec buyout
Amec has acquired Entec, a consultancy with a large presence in the contaminated land sector.

Further Ravenscraig funding package agreed
A new funding package has been agreed that will help identify options for the second phase of the Ravenscraig regeneration project.

Olympics land deal
A land deal that “will help provide thousands of homes and jobs” has been agreed between the government and the mayor of London.

SEPA guidance
SEPA has published guidance to promote the sustainable reuse of greenfield soils by avoiding unnecessary requirements and reducing administrative burdens.

CIWEM appoints Winder
The Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental has named Gary Winder as chair of its new global contaminated land network.

Southall gas works
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has approved plans for the controversial Southall gas works site, which he said will create up to 3,750 new homes, of which 30% will be affordable, and generate a significant number of job opportunities during construction.

Love launches specialist practice
Solicitor Barry Love has launched Environmental Law Chambers, which he said would service the needs of businesses and local and public authorities rather than “simply objecting to everything on behalf of protest groups”.

Plymouth moves on playing field lead levels
Plymouth City Council has sealed off land contaminated with lead on playing fields in Lipson Vale ahead of remediation works.

FERA upsets the applecart
Seamus Lefroy-Brooks of LBH Wembley Geotechnical & Environmental and chairman of the AGS contaminated land working group comments on FERA research for Defra on potential health effects of contaminants in soil

Defra plans cuts
Defra has announced it will deliver £194 million of savings as its departmental contribution towards £11billion of savings being made across government.

NICOLE competition
The Network for Industrially Contaminated Land in Europe has issued a call for entries for its technology award, and is looking for projects that showcase innovative site characterisation tools.

Mounsey reappointed
Dr Helen Mounsey has been reappointed chair of the Coal Authority, energy and climate change minister David Kidney has announced.

Carbon calculation
European consultancy Tauw has developed a calculation tool to quantify carbon dioxide emissions for different soil remediation techniques.

Coal review
Housing minister John Healey has launched a review to “give a new boost to the regeneration of former coal mining areas devastated by the closure of the pits”.

Wales psyllid approval
Welsh Assembly Government environment minister Jane Davidson has given the go-ahead for the release of the psyllid Aphalara itadori to tackle the problem of Japanese knotweed in Wales.

Agency disappointed
The Environment Agency has expressed disappointment at a Planning Inspectorate decision in favour of water companies.

Excavated soils survey
The International Committee on Contaminated Land has completed an international survey of many of its member countries on the management of excavated contaminated soil.

Chernobyl proposals
Farmers still paying the price of the Chernobyl disaster 24 years after radiation settled the Lake District fells would be given more money under Liberal Democrat proposals, according to South Lakeland MP Tim Farron.

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March 2010 headlines (issue 37)

EEB enters soil directive fray
The European Environmental Bureau has written to EU environment ministers welcoming the Spanish presidency’s commitment to reach a deal on the soil framework directive.

Spain reverts to 2007 Portuguese SFD text
The Spanish presidency of the EU, which has expressed determination to force progress on the soil framework directive, has apparently reverted to the 2007 Portuguese draft text, with potentially dire consequences for UK contaminated land policy.

Agency verification guidance
The Environment Agency has published Verification of Remediation of Land Contamination.

Metallic pollutant research in advance of water framework directive implementation
A study has found metallic pollutants in river basins have more sources than other dangerous substances. Sources include stormwater, industrial effluents, treated effluents, agricultural drainage, sediments, mining drainage and landfills.

Meanwood clean-up underway
Leeds City Council has begun a £1.4 million capital grant-funded Part 2A remediation project at Meanwood.

Project SMiRT still seeking site two years on
CL:AIRE is seeking assistance in finding a trial site for the delayed £1.24 million Technology Strategy Board SMiRT (Soil Mix Remediation Technology) project.

York strategy update as investigations begin
City of York Council has published a revised contaminated land strategy.

Hydrock wins Cemex contract
Hydrock’s remediation contracting arm has won a contract with Cemex to decommission, demolish and remediate its former works at Rochester.

Europe’s first bio-agent release to go ahead
Defra has confirmed psyllids will be released to combat Japanese knotweed following last year’s consultation.

Hydrock wins Cemex contract
Hydrock’s remediation contracting arm has won a contract with Cemex to decommission, demolish and remediate its former works at Rochester.

Europe’s first bio-agent release to go ahead
Defra has confirmed psyllids will be released to combat Japanese knotweed following last year’s consultation.

Inspicio buys up UK laboratories
Inspicio has acquired the geotechnical and testing services division of consultancy Bureau Veritas UK for an undisclosed sum. The company’s staff and laboratories will become part of Inspicio’s environmental division, Environmental Scientifics Group.

MP and children plants trees at colliery site
Newcastle-under-Lyme MP Paul Farrelly and 100 school children began planting trees on the 259 acre former Silverdale Colliery as part of a restoration project funded by the Homes and Communities Agency to turn the site into a country park, 300 new homes, two football pitches and a community centre.

Wrexham tar lagoon research
Wrexham Council has agreed funding for a further study of tar in the Llwyneinion lagoon with a view to progressing towards remediation.

Cheshire East team three peaks challenge
A team of Cheshire East Council enforcement officers will complete the 25-mile Yorkshire three peaks challenge to raise money for MedEquip4Kids, which “works with medical staff, play therapists, community nurses, the ambulance service and other registered charities to provide equipment and improve the environment in hospitals across the North West”.

Part 2A radiation investigation
CLB talks to Gloucester City Council CLO Steve Moreby about looking for residential radiation

Community woodland
After four years of intensive regeneration, reconditioning and landscaping work, the Belfield community woodland in Rochdale is now open to the public following a £1.75 million Northwest Regional Development Agency investment through the Newlands programme.

Gardens bill under fire
Andrew Dismore MP’s private member’s bill on “garden grabbing” has been condemned as “both a waste of Parliamentary time and a demonstration of the lack of understanding of housing issues by some MPs” by the Home Builders Federation.

Soil research
A multi-million pound University of Sheffield-based study will tackle the problem of global soil degradation. As part of project SoilTrEC, experts from the university, along with others in Europe, the US and China, have established networks of field research stations to study the resources soils provide to humanity.

NWDA board members
Two business and one trade union appointment have been made to the board of the Northwest Regional Development Agency by minister for regional economic co-ordination Rosie Winterton.

Oil pollution fine
Shetland-based civil engineering company M K Leslie has been fined £3,500 for an oil spill that polluted the East Voe at Scalloway.

CPRE election call
The Campaign to Protect Rural England has said government should back higher development targets for brownfield land in its manifesto for the general election expected to take place in May.

Unitary proposals
The government has announced unitary proposals for Exeter, Norwich, Ipswich, Norfolk, Devon and Suffolk.

Ciria research project
Ciria is working on research looking at how local authorities procure work in the different stages of a contaminated land project.

Suspended sentence
 A County Tyrone man received a suspended three-month prison sentence at Enniskillen Crown Court despite illegally depositing at least 6,496 tonnes of waste, causing an “oily leachate” to enter Craig’s Bog.

US renewables project
The US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are evaluating the feasibility of renewable energy production on Superfund, brownfield and former landfill or mining sites.

Antibiotics in soils
A team of scientists in the UK and the Netherlands have reported “disturbing” evidence soil microbes have become progressively more resistant to antibiotics over the last 60 years.

Flood risk report
Renaissance Regeneration has added a flood risk review to its portfolio of environmental reports.

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Jan/Feb 2010 headlines (issue 37)

Agency slated by ombudsman
The combined failings of the Environment Agency, Lancashire County Council and Rossendale Borough allowed an illegal landfill to operate over seven years “with devastating effect”, according to a report by parliamentary ombudsman Ann Abraham and local government ombudsman Anne Seex.

Planning conditions rewrite
Communities and Local Government and the Planning Inspectorate are consulting on new model planning conditions that will replace those set out in the letter to chief planning officers Model conditions for land affected by contamination, of May 2008.

Latest Scottish vacant and derelict land data
Updated statistics on the levels of vacant and derelict land in Scotland have been published by Scotland’s chief statistician.

Asbestos works drilling begins
Green Remediation has begun drilling ground gas monitoring wells at the site of the former Turners Asbestos Cement works in Widnes on behalf of site owner Marley Eternit, after Halton Borough Council granted planning permission for the construction of 123 houses.

RBWM refuses Badnell’s pit lorry application
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has refused a planning application by developer Michael Shanly Group to increase the number of daily lorry movements allowed to and from the Badnell’s Pit site.

Enviros changes name to reflect acquisition
Enviros has been rebranded SKM Enviros following the firm’s acquisition by Australian consultancy Sinclair Knight Merz in October.

Angus to probe 1,000 properties
Angus Council has approved a £99,325 contract with engineering firm MWH UK for intrusive site investigation of 22 distinct sites totalling 32 hectares and covering around 1,000 addresses – approximately 2% of the homes within the council’s remit.

Reed canary grass first pick for brownfield
The native reed canary grass is the best choice to grow for biomass stock on contaminated sites, according to the results of a five-year research project.

Crews warns on skills framework
Environmental Protection UK has raised concerns about assessment proposals within the Land Condition Skills Development Framework.

Healey blames councils for garden grabbing
Housing minister John Healey has published research he said showed “garden grabbing” of gardens deemed brownfield land is not a national problem, and where it is, is the local council’s fault.

Forum meets on risk assessment
The Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum has held another successful meeting – described as “super” by Bradford’s Ann Barker – with over 100 people in attendence.

Final victory in Part 2A case vindicates Defra’s approach
Stephenson Harwood lawyer Andrew Wiseman explains the implications of the final conclusion of a long-running appeal against a remediation notice

Absent toxicology post
The rumour that the Environment Agency had appointed a new toxicologist has proved to be unfounded.

Knotweed eradication
The Environment Agency has begun the eradication of Japanese knotweed found on washlands it owns near Bolton upon Dearne.

Farm waste raid
A farm at Orsett, Essex and two offices in Southend have been raided by the Environment Agency and Essex police.

Amended GAC report
CL:AIRE has uploaded the amended EIC/AGS/CL:AIRE Generic assessment criteria for human health risk assessment report, which incorporates a corrected table 4.2c, after a minor error was found in copies downloaded in the first few days following its publication in December.

EIC river warning
The Environmental Industries Commission has attacked the government’s river water quality targets as “not ambitious enough”.

Grants funding
It remains unclear at this stage whether Defra will cut funding from the capital grants scheme. The department insists the budget for 2010/11 has not yet been set.

Civil sanctions
The Environment Agency has been granted civil powers to complement existing regulatory powers, which will “give the Agency the discretion to avoid the time consuming and costly process of having to take businesses that commit some offences to court”.

St Modwen results
Brownfield specialist St Modwen Properties had an “extremely difficult year”, losing £100 million.

Greenfield demand
“Leading residential property developers across the UK” expect a continued strategy of building on greenbelt land, according to a survey of 36 companies by estate agent Movewithus.

European soil maps
Two new pan-European soil maps have been published through the European Soil Data Centre – the Saline and sodic soil map of Europe and the Soil compaction map of Europe.

Water gas profile
Dr Russell Thomas has posted a publication titled Water gas profile on the Eugris website.

Definition of waste
Defra is consulting on draft guidance on the legal definition of waste and its application.

INSPIRE directive
The Infrastructure for spatial information in Europe directive came into force at the end of 2009. It requires EU member states provide public access to location-based data related to the environment, according to specific technical standards.

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December 2009 headlines (issue 36)

EIC publishes free GAC suite
A volunteer group of contaminated land experts has completed publication of generic assessment criteria for 35 contaminants not covered by either Environment Agency soil guideline values or the LQM/CIEH report released earlier in the year.

Defra funding window
The first bidding window for 2010/11 funding under the capital projects programme is now open. Applications for funding for Part 2A projects must be with the department by 29 January.

Durham strategy consultation
Durham County Council has begun a three-month public consultation on its draft contaminated land inspection strategy.

Bedfordshire to fight quarry appeal decision
Central Bedfordshire Council will fight on in its battle with owners Laporte Industries and Degussa UK Holdings to see Fuller’s Earth Quarry in Clophill restored and opened to the public after an enforcement notice was quashed by the Planning Inspectorate at a second inquiry following an appeal to the High Court.

Framework agreement
WYG has signed a three-year framework agreement with Clackmannanshire Council to provide investigation services in order to help the council meet its responsibilities under Part 2A.

Accreditation call from YCLF
“The Corby case has reinforced the view that competency is a crucial issue for land quality practitioners,” a meeting of the Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum was told. “The judgement criticised the skills and knowledge of the contractors employed by the council and its officers, a clear indication of the crucial need to demonstrate ability to a recognised standard.”

Cherry trees commemorate Leftwich girls
Flowering cherry trees have been planted to commemorate two Northwich children whose deaths were the subject of a contaminated land probe.

VOC guidance project
CIRIA is looking for a research contractor for a project to develop guidance on “remedial and mitigation options for volatile organic compounds”.

A window into Porton Down
An insight into contamination at Porton Down site has been opened by a freedom of information request to the Environment Agency by Francis Brown, who said he unwittingly took part in testing on the Ministry of Defence site and is now unable to work due to illness.

GAC report error
An error was found in the newly-published Environmental Industries Commission-led generic assessment criteria report, which appears in copies of the report downloaded in the first few days following its release.
l www.claire.co.uk/gac

Illegal landfill fine
A farm owner from Scholar Green, Stoke on Trent, has been fined £14,500 for illegally depositing controlled waste on his own land.

Renfrewshire returns to Linwood
Renfrewshire Council has refused to comment on further investigations at the site of the former Sun Iron Foundry in Linwood, two years after it first investigated complaints that black sludge was bubbling to the surface on areas of open ground near a skatepark, sports centre and children’s park.

Halton breaks ground at St Michael’s project
Ground has been broken for further works at the St Michael’s Golf Course site in Widnes, with Halton Borough Council beginning ground and water remediation after gaining £2.47 million in funding under the capital grants scheme.

Nuclear clean up body facing budget cuts
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has issued a response to a Times article reporting the government is “sharpening the axe for Britain’s £4 billion nuclear clean up budget and drawing up plans for big spending cuts at contaminated sites including Sellafield and Dounreay”.

Information requests
Local regulatory services across England and Wales spend around £6 million a year dealing with central government requests for data – roughly half the salary of an extra environmental health officer for every council – according to report by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy for the Local Better Regulation Office.

Developer drive
A drive to attract developers into Ancoats in east Manchester has been initiated by the NWDA. Property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton will market vacant land and property worth over £8 million.

WYG tackles Wrexham landfills
Consultancy White Young Green is investigating two former landfill sites in Wrexham for the county borough council under Part 2A.

Landfills become community forests
Two former landfill sites have been opened as a community woodland following a £1.78 million grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency. The Southport site underwent months of “intensive reconditioning” to bring it back into use.

Skills framework
Consultation has begun on the Land Condition Skills Development Framework, which will “define the capabilities pertinent to those operating within the brownfield reclamation and regeneration industry”.

Beds sets out sites
Central Bedfordshire has set out its proposals for around 60 sites to take 5,000 homes in the north part of the council’s area over the next fifteen years under its local development framework after a two-year consultation.

Specifying water pipes
Rob Bell looks at the issue of specifying utility pipes on contaminated sites, and finds the industry unhappy with the water industry’s attitude

Ogoniland assessment
An assessment of oil contaminated sites in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta has been launched by the United Nations Environment.

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November 2009 headlines (issue 35)

Wokingham decision quashed
Communities secretary John Denham has overruled Wokingham Borough Council’s decision to refuse outline planning permission for the redevelopment of the heavily contaminated Sandford Farm former landfill site by Woodley Development, having agreed with the planning inspector that the development should be allowed to go ahead.

HPA cadmium advice
The Health Protection Agency has published an information sheet on cadmium.

Brownfield reuse hits 80%
The percentage of houses built on brownfield land hit 80% for the first time in 2008, according to national land use change figures released by the UK Statistics Authority.

Wolverhampton declares Courtaulds site
The gardens of 12 properties on the site of the former Courtaulds Dunstall Hall works have been declared contaminated under Part 2A.

Denham defends investment
Communities secretary John Denham has used a speech to the Thames Gateway Forum to defend continued public investment in the regeneration of the region.

Project to “transform the heart” of Purfleet
A multi-million pound proposal for a regeneration scheme to “transform the heart” of Purfleet has been set out by government.

Kickstart house building cash handed out
The recipients of £388 million in government funding in order to “kickstart” work on 115 stalled housing developments – many on brownfield sites – have been announced by housing minister John Healey.

Clean-up tender for Long Kesh
Contractors are tendering for remediation works at the Long Kesh site at Lisburn, near Belfast, following the development of a regeneration strategy by consultancy WYG Environment.

Smith opens Wheal Jane reserve
The Environment Agency’s project to return the Wheal Jane pilot passive treatment plant to nature in the Carnon Valley near Truro has been opened by chairman Lord Chris Smith.

WRG shrugs off Calvert landfill gas caution
WRG Waste Services has been cautioned after landfill gas emissions from the Calvert Landfill led to over 50 complaints. The company admitted breaching a condition of its landfill permit in 2007.

VertaseFLI Reading contract
VertaseFLI has won a Defra funded contract for the remediation of allotments in Reading that contains elevated concentration of benzo(a)pyrene, arsenic, lead and nickel.

Managing closed landfills under Part 2A
Surrender guidance for landfill permits should be available in a draft form before the end of the year – possibly the end of November – Environment Agency policy advisor for landfill Peter Elliott told the Environmental Protection UK managing closed landfills: from problem to solution event in Nottingham.

Cement stabilisation
Alan Bromage, head of civil engineering at the Concrete Centre, has called for more use of cement solidification/stabilisation remediation of brownfield sites in order to bring brownfield land forw

CL:AIRE lecture
CL:AIRE is inviting contaminated land professionals to attend its inaugural lecture, taking place on the evening of 25 November at One Great George Street, Westminster.

Enviros bags awards
Enviros, part of the Sinclair Knight Merz Group, has won best consultancy in four categories at the 2009 Edie Awards.

Radiation monitoring
Defence Estates will continue monitoring for radioactive contamination at Dalgety Bay until at least March, when the Scottish Environment Protection Agency will undertake a review of results, a meeting of the Dalgety Bay Forum has been told.

UK soils changing
The first major review of trends in terrestrial ecology at twelve key sites within the UK Environmental Change Network between 1993 and 2007 has been published in Biological Conservation. Soils, vegetation and animal communities all show indications of responses to environmental change over the study period.

Tiny waste fine
An Airdrie landowner who refused to remove waste illegally deposited on her land – and then buried it in an attempt to thwart the Scottish Environment Protection Agency – has been fined just £1,600.

First SoBRA meeting
The inaugural meeting of the Society for Brownfield Risk Assessment will be held in London on 17 December.
l info@sobra.org.uk

LACORS warning
LACORS has submitted a response to Communities and Local Government’s improving permitted development consultation, highlighting contaminated land issues.

Info request denied
The government has refused to provide information on the amount of brownfield land in MP Chloe Smith’s Norwich North constituency on cost grounds.

Aecom integration
Aecom has completed the full integration of six European businesses – Faber Maunsell, EDAW, ENSR, ERA, Earth Tech, and Savant – under the Aecom brand.

Corby update
Part 2A is impacted “both dramatically and not at all” by the Corby Steelworks case, Stephenson Harwood lawyer Andrew Wiseman told the Environmental Protection UK autumn workshop.

World Soil Day
Five December is internationally recognised as World Soil Day – a day to advocate the importance of soil for human survival and to raise awareness of the threats facing it and the vital nature of sustainable management.
l www.dirtthemovie.org

Aberaman Colliery
Rhondda Cynon Taf Council has appointed Dyer and Butler principal contractor for advanced works at the former Aberaman Colliery.


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October 2009 headlines (issue 34)

MP attacks Caerphilly LDP
The inclusion of the Bedwas Colliery site in Caerphilly Council’s Local Development Plan has sparked local outrage, compounded by a Freedom of Information request which unearthed an unpublished report on contamination.

Corby appeal
Corby Council is to seek leave to appeal against the judgement in the birth defects case, directly from the Court of Appeal, following the trial judge’s decision to deny this permission.

Corby: reactions
A selection of reactions to the recent Corby decision

Call for PPC-style helpline
Swindon Borough Council’s David Rudland has proposed a Defra-led helpline for contaminated land officers based on the PPC model, as part of the effort to address skills shortages and the perceived lack of consistency in local authority decisions.

Olympics site clean-up nearly complete
Remediation of the 250 hectare Olympics site is almost complete, according to the Olympic Delivery Authority.

Promise of Part 2A guidance
The government has promised new guidance “to help local authorities make proportionate and robust decisions under contaminated land legislation” in Safeguarding our Soils: a Soil Strategy for England, described as “setting out an ambitious vision to improve the sustainable management of soil and tackle degradation within 20 years, covering a range of sectors including agriculture, land management, planning and construction and providing a strategic framework for action”.

£30 million investment dismissed by critics
Renfrewshire Council has negotiated a £30 million community investment as part of final planning approval for redevelopment of the 1,000 hectare former Royal Ordnance Factory Bishopton site by BAE Systems and Redrow Homes.

Updated CLEA version
The Environment Agency has published a new version of the CLEA software version 1.06, which is identical to the CLEA software version 1.05, but “restores the integrity of the output reports”.
l www.environment-agency.gov.uk/clea

Action to recover clean up costs
Cambridgeshire County Council has taken Shell UK and transport firm Arriva to court after spending around £500,000 remediating contaminated land discovered during the development of new offices.

Ground-Gas Solutions nabs John Naylor
High-flyer John Naylor has moved on from Urban Vision, after being appointed technical director at consultancy Ground-Gas Solutions, also based in Manchester.

BBGE trials chromium treatment technology
Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering and URS are trialling the use of calcium polysulphide, a chemical from the agricultural industry, as a way of remediating land contaminated with chromite ore processing residue, which contains chromium VI.

Australia’s SKM grabs Enviros
Enviros has been acquired by engineering consultancy Sinclair Knight Merz.

Asbestos found at illegal landfill after raids
Asbestos has been found at an illegal landfill site in County Durham following the joint Environment Agency-Durham Police “Operation Sinta”, which targeted organised waste crime through a series of early morning raid during which eight people were arrested.

Minister praises land sector
Defra minister Huw Irranca-Davies has praised the contaminated land sector in a speech at the Remediation Innovation Awards 2009. He said: “Your sector plays a key role in our efforts to use land more sustainably in the UK. Over the last decade the sector has grown rapidly in response to government targets and legislation – and fuelled by the development boom.

Accolade for Manywells team
Bradford City Council has been granted planning permission for the remediation and restoration of the Manywells Quarry site, funded by £2 million from Defra’s capital grants programme. The main remediation project is expected to take a year to complete, and will commence later this year.

Green Flag Award
The Tuckingmill Valley Park in Cornwall has won a Special Award for Innovation in the Green Flag Awards

Groundwater scheme
The Environment Agency’s Helpston groundwater remediation scheme has reached a milestone, with the main pollutant pathway contained.

Sentencing guidance
A revised version of the sentencing guidance Costing the Earth has been published by the Magistrates’ Association.
l www.magistrates-association.org.uk/earth

PROjEN office move
Multi-disciplinary project management company PROjEN, based at Northwich in Cheshire, is relocating following a period of sustained growth.

RDX bioremediation
University of York scientists have developed genetically engineered plants with the ability to draw cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (royal demolition explosive or RDX) from contaminated soils, after identifying bacteria that uses RDX as a food source.

Colliery becomes park
The Frickley Colliery Country Park has on the eastern edge of South Elmsall has been created from derelict land of the former colliery yard and spoil heap of Frickley Colliery, which closed in 1993.

SuRF UK framework
The Sustainable Remediation Forum (SuRF UK) steering group has published draft document a Framework for Assessing the Sustainability of Land and Groundwater Remediation for public consultation.

Ecologia expansion
Ecologia has appointed Andrew Binkley as project manager at its growing south west regional office.

Kensington gasworks
Kensington and Chelsea Council is pushing for a new Crossrail station in the north of the borough on a former gasworks site.

Feature: Tackling serious waste crime
Rob Bell talks to the Environment Agency’s waste policy advisor Karen Alden about enforcement action aimed at shutting down illegal landfill sites

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September 2009 headlines (issue 33)

St Leonard’s appeal dismissed
The appeal by Redland Minerals and housebuilder Crest Nicholson against the remediation notice served against them in regard to the bromate and bromide contaminated St Leonard’s Court site in Sandridge has been dismissed by the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs.

May raises Corby concerns at Badnell’s Pit
Remediation of Badnell’s Pit in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead will go ahead in the new year, the Michael Shanly group has announced, with site preparations to begin in autumn.

Further SGV delays
The Environment Agency has published the Soil Guideline Value, contaminant-specific chemical toxicology (TOX) report and supplementary information report for dioxins, furans and dioxin-like PCBs.

RSK one-stop knotweed shop
Three RSK Group companies are working together to provide a one-stop-shop for the removal of Japanese knotweed.

Conditional approval for Lugton soil hub
East Ayrshire Council’s northern local planning committee has conditionally approved an application by recycling and waste management firm William Tracey for a contaminated soil treatment plant on a vacant former industrial site at Dunniflats, Lugton.

Particle find at Dounreay site
Two small areas of radioactive contamination have been detected during a survey of grazing land adjacent to the former nuclear research site at Dounreay.

“Coastal protection” remediation works
Angus Council has applied for planning permission for “coast protection” works at the site of the former Dowrie Works bitumen factory near Arbroath, where waste materials have become exposed.

Environmental forensics grant
Academics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow have received £1 million to carry out “groundbreaking” research in environmental forensics.

Mill Common remediate approved at appeal
The Planning Inspectorate has granted National Grid Property Holdings’ appeal against a Huntingdonshire County Council decision not to grant planning permission for remediation of a former gasworks because of the damage the project would do to trees on the site.

Agency acts on Sellafield leak
Sellafield has been issued with an enforcement notice by the Environment Agency in relation to a leak of radioactive liquid reported in January.

Rare species thrive on Restoration Trust land
A biodiversity review of Land Restoration Trust sites has found endangered species thriving on brownfield land.

Soil centre for Scotland’s north
Aberdeenshire Council has granted conditional planning permission for the north east of Scotland’s first contaminated soil treatment centre as part of a wider waste management and landfill facility at the Howe of Byth Quarry, New Pitsligo.

Sewage sludge guidance
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is consulting on proposals for how it will regulate the use of sewage sludge in the restoration of derelict land and forestry.

The fight continues
CLB reports from Corby on the borough council’s decision to appeal against the High Court’s decision that it was may be liable for local birth defects

Greener clean-ups
The US Environmental Protection Agency is consulting on a new strategy aimed at making the remediation of hazardous waste sites greener.

Contamination study
Nottingham City Council has received £330,000 for a study investigating how to develop the Broxtowe Country Park.

Wirral Waters
Wirral Council has approved Peel Holding’s £200 million Northbank East proposal. The plans will “totally transform” derelict brownfield land within East Float at Birkenhead Docks and create over 27,000 jobs in what is one of the country’s most deprived areas.

Unexploded bombs
CIRIA has set out its concerns about companies offering services dealing with unexploded bombs ahead of the launch of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) – a Guide for the Construction Industry on 14 October.

Forshaw joins council
Homes & Communities Agency head of environmental policy (and former CL:AIRE chief executive) Jane Forshaw has taken up a senior position at Stoke-on-Trent City Council as head of environmental policy.

Contamination barrier
The problem of coastal erosion leading to the wash-out of potentially hazardous waste from former industrial and domestic landfill sites situated along the coastline in the UK is growing, leading CIRIA to launch a project to develop guidance on the management of landfill sites on eroding coastlines.

Landfill fires pollution
Little is known about the air pollution impacts of fires at landfill sites, according to the Environment Agency’s Review of Emission Factors for Incident Fires. Emission factors are needed in order to produce computer simulations of the distribution of air pollution from the around 450 fires at Agency-regulated sites per year.

Sheep dip pollution
The Environment Agency has urged farmers to ensure sheep dipping processes are secure after poisonous chemicals were found in Keasden Beck near Bentham and tributaries of the River Hindburn near Wray.

Guidance on the way
Defra is planning to publish new guidance on decision-making under Part 2A, according to Environmental Protection UK.

Gasworks redeveloped
Southwark Council’s planning committee has granted an application from Veolia Environmental Services to build an integrated waste management facility on the former Old Kent Road gasworks site.

Station remediation
Contaminated soils will be removed from the site of Bromsgrove railway station as part of a wider revamp and modernisation that has secured provisional Department for Transport funding. The site was previously an oil terminal.

AMEC appointment
AMEC UK has appointed James Anderson head of strategic and sustainability services. “It is an exciting time to be growing strategic and sustainability services in an organisation like AMEC,” he said. “Particularly against a backdrop of the unprecedented challenge facing this country to meet hugely demanding carbon reduction and efficiency targets across society.”

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August 2009 headlines (issue 32)

Corby birth defects ruling
The High Court has ruled against Corby Borough Council in the first stage of the steelworks birth defects case. This paves the way for a group of children who claim their disabilities were caused as a result of the council’s negligence in the remediation of the town’s huge steelworks to seek damages.

James Bridge stalls following funding cuts
Advantage West Midlands will stop funding the remediation of the former IMI James Bridge copper works in Walsall after government cut funding by £48 million.

Brownfield report
Releasing too much greenfield land with planning permission for development can render brownfield sites unviable, according to a CPRE report.

BAP SGV delay
The publication of soil guideline values and TOX reports for benzo(a)pyrene and naphthalene by the Environment Agency have been delayed, environment minister Dan Norris has told the House of Commons.

Environ GACs
Environ’s in-house UK team of human health risk assessors has released an “extensive” suite of generic assessment criteria for assessing risks to human health from potentially contaminated land.

SEPA policy officer
Caroline Thornton has taken over as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s contaminated land policy officer.

LQM/CIEH set out GAC suite
Land Quality Management and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Management have published a second edition of their suite of generic assessment criteria.

Barnoldswick scheme proposed by councillors
Barnoldswick Liberal Democrat councillors David Whipp and Margaret Bell have proposed a regeneration scheme which would see the regeneration of derelict and contaminated sites along Stocks Beck, which runs through the town.

Psyllid to control knotweed
The government has proposed Europe’s first ever deliberate release of a non-native species as a biological control agent in the hope it will help control Japanese knotweed.

Third survey following disputed findings
Wycombe District Council is carrying out a third soil survey at the closed Bassetbury allotment site after disgruntled users commissioned an analysis of one of two prior surveys, which found that the site was safe for use.

Nitrabar final report
A final report on Nitrabar – an EC Life Environment project that has successfully developed a permeable reactive barrier technology that removes nitrates from agriculture from groundwater – has been published.

St Michael’s works
Halton Borough Council has excavated trial pits and drilled boreholes drilled at the St Michael’s golf course in Widnes in order to provide technical data to prove that the final planned remediation design for the site will work.

Potato PAH uptake project
Multi-disciplinary consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff is aiming to carry out research targeted at establishing reliable data on the uptake of polyaromatic hydrocarbons by potatoes, in partnership with Manchester City Council, which is providing facilities.

Flintshire Council wins appeal ruling
The Planning Inspectorate has dismissed an appeal by Belmont Property (Buckley) Co against Flintshire Council’s decision to refuse outline planning permission for a housing development on a heavily contaminated former claypit and landfill site on the grounds that safe remediation could not be achieved through planning conditions.

VHE remediation jobs
Remediation contractor VHE Construction is to begin works on four sites for Strata Homes – three in Derby and one at Retford in Nottinghamshire.

SEPA fine success
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has successfully prosecuted a Fife businessman who put soil and groundwater at risk by illegally storing waste including soils, vehicles, gas cylinders, slag, oil tanks and batteries on a site close to the River Eden.

Technology treats chromium
Scientists at the University of Brighton have developed a new way of treating chromium VI contaminated soil, involving placing soil in a specially kitted out skip, placing two arrays of iron electrodes at opposite ends of the skip and applying a low intensity electric current.

Funding go-ahead for Avenue coking works
Central government funding for the remediation of the former Avenue Coking works has allowed work to begin on the site this month, the East Midlands Development Agency and Homes and Communities Agency has announced.

Contamination barrier
Thirteen priority employment sites – including contaminated brownfield sites – have been identified across Cheshire and Warrington by a study carried out for the Cheshire & Warrington Economic Alliance and Northwest Regional Development Agency.

Bioavailability review
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health has published Reviewing Human Health Risk Assessment Reports Invoking Contaminant Oral Bioavailability Measurements or Estimates, aimed at assisting report reviewers in recognising good practice while identifying and rejecting misuses of bioaccessibility data in DQRA.

Surprise grant refusal
Neath Port Talbot Council has said it is “extremely disappointed” following the Welsh Assembly decision to reject its bid for funding for the remediation of the Briton Ferry gas works under the contaminated land capital fund.

Remediation app
South Tyneside Council has applied for planning permission for the remediation and reclamation of derelict and contaminated land at the proposed site of the Jarrow Riverside Green Business Park.

Consultancies suffer
Consultancies’ contaminated land practices have “taken the biggest hit” from the economic downturn, according to an Environment Analyst report. However, the environmental consulting industry continued to grow by 9% overall in 2008, taking total revenues to £1.5 billion – but this represents “a dramatic slowdown” on growth during 2007 of over 18% and is the lowest growth for five years.
www.environment-analyst.com

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June/July 2009 headlines (issue 31)

Centre plans health studies
The £5 million MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health at Imperial College London and King’s College London will carry out a study “exploring whether land that is contaminated with chemicals from industrial and domestic pollution could have a negative impact on people’s health”.

Grant funding concern
Following the closure of this year’s second bidding window for 2009/10 contaminated land capital grants, Environmental Protection UK has expressed concern that £2.5 million originally allocated from 2008/09 pot has had to be reallocated from this year’s funds for work that fell behind schedule.

Envirolab expands operations
Envirolab, part of the RSK Group, has opened a £1 million inorganics laboratory, which the company said would expand its analytical remit to include all common inorganic contaminants, “virtually eliminating subcontracted services and saving around £500,000 per year”.

James Bridge IMI copper works study begins
Work has begun on the preliminary stages of the remediation of former IMI James Bridge copper works in Walsall’s Darlaston area.

Canal partnership agreed
A partnership project has been formed by Falkirk Council and British Waterways Scotland to transform 58 acres of Tamfourhill on the Forth and Clyde Canal into an “environmentally sustainable waterway community” with a new access to the Falkirk Wheel, a rotating boat lift opened in 2002.

Fine for repeated breach of discharge permit
A commercial property developer that demolished a permitted water treatment plant, allowing untreated water to enter North Swaithe Dyke, then – upon discovery by the Environment Agency – replaced it with a plant that did not function correctly, has been fined just £5,000 by Doncaster Magistrates’ Court.

No SFD agreement
The final Environment Council meeting under the Czech presidency has taken place without agreement being reached on the Soil Framework Directive.

Biomass plans for leachate
Waste Recycling Group plans to irrigate willow for use as a fuel in biomass power stations with treated water from a proposed onsite lagoon system to treat leachate at its Allerton Park landfill, near Wetherby.

HPA expert group recommends radon action
An expert advisory group of the Health Protection Agency has recommended that the Agency consider tightening its recommended safety levels for radon gas in homes and workplaces.

JISCmail GACs
The JiSCmail volunteer group has published its second set of general assessment criteria, aimed at “plugging the hole” created by the Environment Agency’s decision to base soil guideline values on 6% soil organic matter, a decision causing much consternation among contaminated land professionals.

Land use statistics
The Department for Communities and Local Government has published provisional estimates of land use changes in England for 2008.

Antrim quarry plans approved
Northern Ireland environment minister Sammy Wilson has approved Lafarge Cement UK’s plans to redevelop its redundant works and quarry at Magheramorne, on the shore of Larne Lough, north of Belfast.

Ground-Gas Solutions exclusivity agreement
Manchester-based environmental consultancy Ground-Gas Solutions has signed an exclusivity agreement with Shawcity, the UK’s largest photo ionisation detector hire company, which will mean Shawcity exclusively recommending the company as its consultant of choice for the Gasclam device, which enables continuous monitoring of ground gases at landfill and brownfield sites.

Jaguar planning app
A planning application for the redevelopment of the former Jaguar site at Browns Lane, Coventry, has been submitted by Advantage West Midlands and Goodman.

Crops from brownfield
Environmental Protection UK has produced a leaflet titled Growing Edible Crops – Considering Soil Safety following a call by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, host of Channel 4’s River Cottage for the public to utilise urban green space to grow edible crops (including railway land, wasteland, utility company land, graveyards and hospitals).

Precious little progress
SEPA contaminated land report author Martin Valenti talks to CLB about its findings, local authority frustrations, and his hopes for progress on Part 2A

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May 2009 headlines (issue 30)

Gassing landfill designation
Rochdale Borough Council designated the former Boo Hole landfill as contaminated land under Part 2A, and has written to 250 residents of Heywood to inform them of the decision.

Manslaughter charge
Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings has become the first company to be charged under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, after the Crown Prosecution Service authorised a charge of corporate manslaughter against the site investigation firm in relation to the death of Alexander Wright.

Groundwater works “urgent”
Allerdale Borough Council is carrying out “urgent” groundwater investigation works in the town of Maryport.

Landfill sites investigation
Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council is beginning what it described as “routine site investigation works on land with a former industrial past”, beginning with two landfill sites and funded by £188,000 in Defra capital grants.

BGS makes records public
Hundreds of site investigation and drilling records held by the British Geological Survey will be published following rulings from the Department of Justice, Information Commissioner’s Office, and guidance from the National Archives.

Land remediation relief rules
HMRC has published draft guidance on the revised Land Remediation Relief rules.

Royal Inch gasworks complete
Renfrewshire Council has completed a seven-month, £3 million remediation project in Royal Inch Crescent, Renfrew, to remove the contaminated remains of a gasworks discovered underneath homes.

Kean calls for funding scheme
The government should pump cash into contaminated land remediation to help kickstart movement in the development and housing sectors, IKM Consulting director and Environmental Industries Commission contaminated land and Scotland working groups chair Alistair Kean has said.

Ring-fencing failure
Alistair Kean also accused the government of failing to recycle increased revenue from the demise of the Landfill Tax Exemption for contaminated soils back into the brownfield redevelopment industry.

SGVs published
The Environment Agency has published the contaminant-specific chemical toxicology (TOX) and soil guideline value reports for arsenic and nickel.
l www.environment-agency.gov.uk/clea.

Estuary remediation
Micro-organisms occurring naturally in coastal mudflats have an essential role to play in cleaning up pollution by breaking down petrochemical residues, according to research by Dr Efe Aganbi and colleagues from the University of Essex.

JISCmail volunteer GACs
A group of JISCmail list members has co-operated in the development of generic assessment criteria based on recently published Environment Agency soil guideline values, and made them freely available on the JISCmail website.
l www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=contaminated-land-strategies

Augean unveils plans for radioactively contaminated soils landfill facility
Waste management company Augean has announced it has developed plans to dispose of low-level radioactively contaminated soils and construction waste from sources such as the decommissioning of nuclear power stations and hospitals at its East Northants resource management facility.
l www.augeanplc.com

Minewater treatment solution
Teesside University’s Clean Environment Management Centre staff have said they are close to finding a solution to a pollution problem that has turned an East Cleveland beck red for the past ten years.

Quarry effluent fine
Marshalls Mono has been fined for polluting more than two kilometres of a West Yorkshire watercourse.

SEPA water consultation
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is consulting on guidance on water pollution from contaminated sites.
l www.sepa.org.uk

Greenspace funding failures
More joined-up thinking between policy-makers and project managers is required to ensure greenspaces on brownfield sites are truly sustainable, according to a research paper by the Forestry Commission’s Forest Research Agency.

Yorkshire CL Forum meeting
The Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum has launched its website at a meeting on “regeneration in challenging times” at Bradford University.

South East Plan
Government publication of the final South East Plan, setting the region’s planning framework for the next 20 years, has received “a cautious welcome” from the new partnership body responsible for its delivery.

Faber name change
Engineering consultancy Faber Maunsell has changed its name to AECOM, completing its integration into the global AECOM group.

Nuclear land buys
A joint venture between RWE npower and EON UK has purchased potential sites for new nuclear power stations at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in South Gloucestershire.

US brownfield funding
The US Environmental Protection Agency has announced the availability of an estimated $111.9 million (approximately £70 million) in grants bolstered by funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to help communities clean up brownfields sites that may be contaminated.

Lee joins Merton
Merton Council has appointed as its new director of environment and regeneration Chris Lee, currently executive director of housing, regeneration and environment at Lambeth.

Pollution register
Defra has launched the United Kingdom Pollutant Release and Transfer Register website.
l http://prtr.defra.gov.uk

In administration
Remediation firm Envirotreat has gone into administration. Cooper Parry, “the largest independent firm of business advisers in the Midlands”, has been appointed as administrators.

Colworth Prize
Professor Geoffrey Gadd from the University of Dundee has been awarded the Society for General Microbiology’s Colworth Prize lecture for his work on how microbes interact with metals and minerals.

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April 2009 headlines (issue 29)

Bradford bags bulk of capital grants fund cash
Bradford Council has successfully bid for £2 million in funding for the further remediation and restoration of the Manywells landfill site under the contaminated land capital grants fund scheme.

SGVs and TOX reports
The Environment Agency has published the first contaminant-specific chemical toxicology (TOX) and soil guideline value reports developed using the new Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment framework published in January.

Alney Island grant fund win
Gloucester City Council has been successful in its bid to the contaminated land capital grants fund for remediation of contaminated land on Alney Island, declared under Part 2A after pollution was discovered during Environment Agency works to install flood defences in 2006.

Allotments to remain closed
Bassetsbury Allotments, closed by Wycombe District Council over a month ago due to heavy metal contamination, will remain so indefinitely while the council secures funding for further investigations.

Determination after two years
Oadby & Wigston Borough Council has made a Part 2A declaration on the site of the former Great Wigston Gasworks, following two years of investigations.

Agency liability search begins
The Environment Agency has formally launched an investigation to establish the person or organisation responsible for the Halliwell Banks site [see CLB 27, February 2009], also known as the Ryhope landfill.

Second radium site probed
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has begun investigations of a second radium contaminated site – the Loch Lomond radium works at Balloch.

Cinderford cash go-ahead
The Homes and Communities Agency has confirmed it has received approval to proceed with an investment of £14,750,000 from the National Coalfields Programme to assist in the regeneration of Cinderford in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. The scheme will see 19.7 hectares of reclaimed brownfield land brought back into use.

Car scrapping pollution warning
The Environment Agency has expressed concerns about the extent of ongoing soil contamination after figures suggested up to 600,000 litres of oil from illegally scrapped cars is polluting land in the North West alone each year.

National earthworm survey
A nationwide survey in which the public records information about soil and earthworms in their local communities aimed at measuring changes in soil quality caused by pollution and climate change has been launched by Imperial College London.

Rapid measurement techniques
The Environment Agency has published guidance on rapid measurement techniques.

Ending the SGV debate
Environment Agency senior scientist Ian Martin attempts to end the soil guideline value debate once and for all

National nuclear lab
A consortium led by Serco with Battelle and the University of Manchester has been selected as recommended bidder for the competition to appoint an operator to run the National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield.

Remediation event
VertaseFLI will host a conference titled Land Assessment and Remediation on June 19 in Manchester.
l Call 0161 437 2708.

Nuclear watchdog
The line-up of the board of the government's watchdog to oversee nuclear decommissioning and waste disposal funding arrangements has been agreed.

Website revamp
CIRIA had revamped its website at www.ciria.org

Bacterium research
Researchers at Ohio State University have been able to observe how the Shewanella oneidensis bacterium breaks down metals to chemically extract oxygen.

Nuclear sites
A list of 11 sites that could be potential hosts to new nuclear power stations in the UK has been published by government.

Standard revision
BSI is about to embark on a revision of BS 10175:2001 – Investigation of Potentially Contaminated Sites: Code of Practice.
l www.bsi-global.com

Watermark WestQuay
Plans for a major development in Southampton city centre have moved a step forward after Southampton City Council awarded the Watermark WestQuay development outline planning permission.

Endocrine disruptors
The first phase of a national demonstration programme investigating how wastewater treatment works might be built and operated to reduce the concentration of endocrine disrupting chemicals in UK rivers has been completed.

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March 2009 headlines (issue 28)

Contamination rules out Bradford-Shipley trailblazer
A report to the Leeds City Regional Partnership has ruled out the Shipley-Bradford Canal Corridor as unsuitable for fast-tracking as a “trailblazer” for the Urban Eco Settlement Programme – the region’s alternative to government eco-town proposals.

SGV publication dates
The Environment Agency has insisted soil guideline values and TOX reports for six substances will be published by 31 March. The Agency had previously said: “We intend to publish TOX and SGV reports for a number of priority substances by March 2009.”

Talywain developer goes under
The company behind a £100 million redevelopment plan for the former British Coal site at Talywain has gone into administration, leaving the future of the scheme uncertain.

Saltmeadows Riverside reopens
A £2 million scheme to restore an area of heavily contaminated riverside land and return it to public use has been completed at Saltmeadows Riverside in Gateshead.

Dalgety Bay clean-up agreed
Poorly worded regulations are hindering a decision by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on a designation of radioactively contaminated land for Dalgety Bay, CLB has been told.

Tacis programme review
Consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff has been commissioned by the European Commission to review past programmes of environmental activity under the Tacis Regional Action Programme, which ran from 2000 to 2006, and recommend a further tranche of work under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument from 2010-2013, which supercedes Tacis.

Horncastle tip transformed
WORK has begun on an £850,000 project to transform the former Hemingby Lane tip in Horncastle into parkland.

Buried asbestos to be left in place
A contractor who buried 60 to 70 tonnes of asbestos in the ground has been fined a total of £5,500 at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court.

Environmental Damage Regs
After 20 years the Environmental Liability Directive has finally been transposed into English law. Separate Regulations for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are expected later this year.
www.pannone.com

Colliery remediation
Works have begun on the 50-hectare former colliery site at Chatterley Whitfield. The £6 million scheme for Stoke-on-Trent City Council will create a new heritage country park for recreational use by the local community, while “retaining the mining heritage of the area”.

Soil dumping fine
A Welshpool construction company has been found guilty of dumping 200 tonnes of waste soil.

Kitchen solution for chromium
Engineers and environmental scientists at the University of Leeds are developing methods of remediating chromium contaminated water by adding simple organic chemicals such as vinegar.

Radioactive waste storage advice
The Health Protection Agency has updated 1992 advice on permissible radiation exposure levels from solid radioactive waste disposal sites.
l www.hpa.org.uk

Pesticide control
DCLG deputy director planning – resources and environment policy Dr Stephanie Hurst has written to chief planning officers to make clear ministers’ opinions on large-scale landscaping development using waste.

Glasgow Velodrome asbestos find
Work has been called to a halt on the site of the National Indoor Sports Arena and National Velodrome after asbestos was discovered.

Housebuilder withdraws
Housebuilder Crest Nicholson has withdrawn from the Erith Western Gateway regeneration scheme – a flagship brownfield redevelopment as part of the government’s Thames Gateway scheme – citing the “increasingly difficult economic climate”.

Tannery investigation
Halton Borough Council has begun investigating the gardens of 52 properties built on the site of a former tannery and scrap metal yard to establish whether the land is affected by contamination.

Pesticide control
Scientists at the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of the Spanish National Research Council have developed a method to encapsulate and slowly release pesticides that prevents leaching to groundwater and volatilisation.

Asda withdrawal
East Devon District Council is “deeply disappointed” at the decision by Asda not to proceed with redevelopment plans on the brownfield Royal Avenue site.
Oil tank warning
Home owners in Cornwall have been urged to check domestic oil tanks following what the Environment Agency described as one of the worst winters

Radioactive guidance
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has published guidance on assessing proposals for the authorisation of near-surface facilities dealing with the disposal of solid radioactive waste.
l www.sepa.org.uk/radioactive_substances/radioactive_waste/near-surface_disposal.aspx

Deadline extension
The European Commission has extended the deadline on a ban on the importation of soils contaminated with pesticides or persistent organic pollutants into the European Community because of delays in implementing a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation programme on the prevention and disposal of obsolete and unwanted pesticides.

Councils merge
A handful of local authorities are going unitary from 1 April, with jobs in contaminated land to be lost as environmental health teams are merged. Some council have sorted out their new organisations (with new responsibilities and redundancies already agreed) while others appear to be behind.

Magnox leak fine
Nuclear power station operator Magnox has been fined £400,000 (including costs) for over 14 years of radioactive leaks at the former Bradwell Nuclear Power Station in Essex.

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February 2009 headlines (issue 27)

More questions at An Aird
A twelve-month ground gas monitoring and soil sampling programme at An Aird, Fort William, draws to a close next week with some questions unanswered. However, Highland Council is confident there is no significant risk to human health at the site from contaminants in soil.

Wiltshire gasworks site progress
Wiltshire County Council is moving forward with plans to remediate a former gasworks site in Warminster under the Part 2A regime.

Agency SoCL report
The Environment Agency has published its second State of Contaminated Land report.

Halliwell Banks special site
Sunderland City Council has declared the former landfill site on sea cliffs at Halliwell Banks, Ryhope, a special site after initial Environment Agency investigations [see CLB 20] established a risk of pollution to groundwater and the sea.

NWDA funding for Bury community woodland
Northwest Regional Development Agency funding of £3.8 million will pay for 13.7 kilometres of cycle and foot paths as well as extensive habitat management and 20 years of Forestry Commission management of a 73 hectare brownfield site in a deprived part of Bury.

Bishopbriggs nears completion
Engineering and environmental consultancy firm IKM Consulting is nearing completion of a large bioremediation project in the Glasgow suburb of Bishopbriggs.

Olympics clean-up costs rise
Unexpectedly high levels of contamination under the site chosen for the 2012 London Olympics velodrome have contributed to runaway costs, with the government admitting that the construction budget now stands at £1.36 billion, an increase of £97 million.
l www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/publications/5800.aspx

Reuse of waste on landfill sites
HM Revenue & Customs has published Brief 58/08 Landfill tax: Use of Material on Landfill Sites – Court of Appeal Judgment in Waste Recycling Group Limited Case, its response for landfill operators to the Court of Appeal judgement in favour of WRG.
l www.hmrc.gov.uk/briefs/excise-duty/5808.htm

2007 land use statistics published
DCLG has published provisional national statistics on land use change for 2007, which differ slightly from the initial estimates published in May 2008.

Corby birth defects case begins
Corby Borough Council has begun its defence in High Court against claims it was negligent in the remediation of contaminated land in the town, leading to the birth of 18 children with deformities to their hands and feet.

Liverpool RA criteria
Liverpool City Council’s public protection division has announced it will not accept any contaminated land risk assessments derived using the withdrawn CLEA framework or based upon old SGVs.

Sellafield’s future
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has confirmed that it expects Sellafield, together with Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell to be nominated as potential sites for new nuclear power stations.

Revamping Romanian policy
Parsons Brinckerhoff will assist a European Union-funded project to tackle large tracts of polluted land in Romania.

Progress on Part 2A
Environment Agency principal scientist Ian Martin gives CLB his views on the latest State of Contaminated Land report

Tipping at South London cemeteries
The Environment Agency is carrying out a criminal investigation into illegal tipping of contaminated soils and other building wastes at three South London cemeteries after Southwark Council announced it had discovered that illegal activities had been going on “for some considerable time”.

Soil dumped in valley
A farmer and his business partner who tipped thousands of tonnes of building and construction waste in an unspoilt Devon valley have been ordered to pay £13,000 in fines and costs to the Environment Agency.

Medical geology
The British Geological Survey will be holding a two-day event on “medical geology” in March. BGS said the term is defined as “the science dealing with the relationships between natural geological factors and health in man and animals, and understanding the influence of environmental factors on the geographical distribution of such health problems”.
l http://sites.google.com/site/bgsmedicalgeologymeeting

Novel groundwater technique
A report by the US Environmental Protection Agency has light on a new way to monitor and improve the success of groundwater remediation efforts, using a technique developed at the University of Toronto.
l www.epa.gov/ada/pubs/reports/600r08148/600r08148.pdf

Date stones for water treatment
Research by a Saudi Arabian prince could see the millions of date stones disposed of in Saudi Arabia each year used to decrease water pollution.

Minewater treatment
Project management firm PROjEN has been given the go-ahead by Ineos Fluor and Glebe Mines to begin a £160,000 mine tailings control project at the UK’s only producer of indigenous fluorspar.

Rivers action plan
The London Rivers Action Plan, which aims to restore “lost and neglected” rivers to their natural state has been launched.
l www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33106.aspx

Potters Field plans Berkeley Homes and Southwark Council have published draft plans a mixed use development on a site known as Potters Fields.

Flood scheme worries
Moray Council principal contaminated land officer Helen Barron has dismissed reports that contamination issues are holding up the Rothes Flood Alleviation Scheme after claims completion of the Back Burn phase of the programme has been put back from next month to December.

Traveller site enquiry
A Welsh Assembly inspector has carried out a public enquiry to determine an appeal against a planning decision made by Flintshire County Council not to allow Travellers to settle permanently on potentially contaminated land at Dollar Park, Holywell.

ELD regulations
The Environmental Damage Regulations – transposing the Environmental Liability Directive – will enter into force in England on 1 March. The regulations, along with the guidance document, a short guide, the impact assessment, a note on transposition and a FAQ are available on Defra’s website.
l www.defra.gov.uk/environment/liability/index.htm

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January 2009 headlines (issue 26)

Final Clea software launch
The Environment Agency has published its revised Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment technical guidance following a three-month consultation.

Deriving chromium GACs
The Environment Agency has responded to practitioner concerns about the high generic assessment criteria for chromium derived from the final Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment package.
l www.environment-agency.gov.uk/clea.

Outline permission for Bishopton
Renfrewshire Council has granted outline permission for the development of over 2,500 homes, a business park, woodland and community facilities on the contaminated former Royal Ordnance Factory site at Bishopton.

Doncaster marches on
Despite the economic recession, regeneration will continue in Doncaster, where the council’s cabinet has approved the strategy and masterplan for the second phase of the Waterfront project.

US funds training
The US Environmental Protection Agency has announced $2.6 million (£1.83 million) in job training grants “geared toward cleaning up contaminated properties and turning them into productive community assets”.

Statistics calculator and RAM2
Consultancy ESI has launched the commercial version of its contaminated land statistics calculator, which supports guidance from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and CL:AIRE titled Guidance on Comparing Soil Contamination Data with a Critical Concentration.
l www.esinternational.com

Wiseman joins Harwood
Law firm Stephenson Harwood has appointed Andrew Wiseman as head of its environment practice. 
l weblink www.stephensonharwood.com

Soil evaluation tool
A study partly conducted under the EU-funded TUSEC-IP project has developed ILSE, a method to evaluate soil quality by combining soil quality indicators, such as texture, pH and contamination levels, with a range of pre-developed “pedotransfer functions” – models of complex soil properties, such as the ability to support plant life or capture carbon.
l  http://demo.grid-it.at/ilse

Defra publishes CoGAP doc
Defra has published Protecting our Water, Soil and Air: A Code of Good Agricultural Practice for Farmers, Growers and Land Managers, which the department said consolidates and updates the former three separate codes for water, soil and air.
l www.defra.gov.uk/farm/environment/cogap/index.htm

SEPA sets out Dalgety Bay proposals
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has presented the findings of its latest survey of radioactivity on the Dalgety Bay foreshore to the Dalgety Bay Forum.

Developer advice note
St Edmundsbury Borough Council land contamination officer James Lemon has written an advice note titled Guidance Notes for Developments on Land which is Potentially Contaminated or where the Proposed End Use is Sensitive for the Suffolk Environmental Protection Group.
l www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/live/pdf/EnvHealth/SuffolkLANote01.pdf

SFD update
Environmental Protection UK was present at a Defra stakeholder meeting to discuss progress on the controversial Soil Framework Directive.

Corby date set
A date of 16 February has been set by Justice Akenhead for what is expected to be a four-month trial where the families of 18 children born with birth defects will claim Corby Borough Council is responsible, after mismanaging the remediation of a former British Steel site.

ISO consults on soil standards
The BSI Group is seeking comment on two draft ISO standards: Soil Quality: Assessment of Impact from Soil Contaminated with Mineral Oil and Soil Quality: Guidance for Burial of Animal Carcasses to Prevent Epidemics.
l Email Charlotte Armstrong at charlotte.armstrong@bsigroup.com for further information. Comment on the draft animal burial standard is due by 25 February, and for soil contaminated by mineral oil by 10 April.

Unitary council consolidates strategy
Shropshire Council, which will come into being on April 1 following the abolition of Bridgnorth, North Shropshire, Oswestry, South Shropshire and Shrewsbury & Atcham councils, is consulting on a contaminated land strategy to replace those currently used by the five district and borough councils.

Landfill guidance
Guidance for landfill operators wanting to accept low-level and very low-level radioactive waste has been published by the Environment Agency after Defra introduced a more flexible policy approach allowing disposal of low and very-level radioactive waste waste such as rubble and soil from decommissioning activities last year.
l Visit www.environment-agency.gov.uk

Recession hits land sector
CLB gathers opinions on the impact of the downturn in development on the contaminated land sector

Czarnecki move
Remediation company VertaseFLI has appointed Adam Czarnecki as regional director to manage and continue the expansion of its Manchester office.
l www.vertasefli.com

Controlled waste fine
Brian Holford of Highley, in Bridgnorth, has pleaded guilty at Shrewsbury Magistrates’ Court to two charges concerned with the illegal disposal of waste.

Gas guidance survey
Iain McBurnie, senior engineer – contamination with the Jacobs/Atkins Design Joint Venture, is carrying out research into the use of current hazardous ground gas guidance in the UK as part of a Master of Research in contaminated land management at the University of Nottingham.
l www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=z28H2u5_2bvvHM1uW0zE6IYw_3d_3d

Ground gas guide
The Local Authority Guide to Ground Gas, written by Steve Wilson, Geoff Card and Sarah Haines, is now available as a free download for local authorities.
l Contact Standing Conference on Contaminated Land co-ordinator Howard Price at h.price@cieh.org.

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December 2008 headlines (issue 25)

Defra sets out ongoing concerns on soils directive
Defra Soils Programme Manager Neil Hornby has reiterated the UK government’s concerns about the proposed EU Soil Framework Directive in a speech to Environmental Protection UK’s autumn contaminated land training workshop.

Membrane inspection
Steve Wilson of consultancy the Environmental Protection Group has called for statutory inspections of gas membranes at Environmental Protection UK’s training event Practical and Sustainable Realities of Contaminated Land.

Stobart to use CL:AIRE CoP
The 3MG (Mersey Multimodal Gateway) remediation and redevelopment project in Halton looks set to be the first in the country to utilise the CL:AIRE Definition of Waste – Development Industry Code of Practice in order to re-use treated soils onsite, CLB has been told.

Go-ahead for Prince of Wales colliery
Secretary of state for communities and local government Hazel Blears has upheld Wakefield Metropolitan Council’s decision to unanimously approve UK Coal’s site development masterplan for the former Prince of Wales Colliery in Pontefract.

Approval for waste treatment facility
West Berkshire Council has approved Veolia’s proposals for an integrated waste management facility on a contaminated former railways sidings site, despite a three-year campaign by Padworth Against Waste Site.

Halton to bid for St Michael’s funding
Halton Borough Council will bid for further funding from Defra’s contaminated land capital grants scheme in the current funding window for remediation works at the St Michael’s golf course Part 2A site, CLB has been told.

South Lanarkshire to acquire petrol station
South Lanarkshire Council’s estates committee has agreed to buy a “contaminated and derelict” former petrol station in Birkenshaw which is “prominently located on the main route into Larkhall from the south”.

EAC questions brownfield policy
The influential Environmental Audit Commission has called on the government to review its target of three million homes to be built by 2020 and for it to clarify how much brownfield land has been identified for new homes and whether its target for 60% of housing to be built on brownfield is achievable.

Capitalising on Defra grants
CLB talks to Phil Whitaker of the Environment Agency’s contaminated land capital projects team about the revamped programme

More fines
A repeat environmental offender has received a 32-month sentence in Reading Crown Court after “masterminding the well-organised, large-scale illegal transfer of waste”.

Pools of blood
A company that illegally spread waste material on land at Maughanby, Cumbria has been fined £12,000.

Shipdham inspection
Monitoring work is being carried out on land in Shipdham, Thetford that was used by a biodiesel manufacturing company. Contractors were on site for a week from the beginning of the month, sinking eight three-metre boreholes to find out how much methane gas the site contains. Soil samples were taken at the same time.

Senior takes over at Clemance
Professor Eric Senior has taken over as director of the Clean Environment Management Centre at the University of Teesside.

Lead and PCB impacts
A University of Granada researcher has developed a methodology for determining the toxicological effects caused in animals by lead and organochlorine pollutants.

Illegal waste site
Asbestos was buried and oil filters deposited at an illegal waste site in Essex which broke the law for almost a year despite warnings and guidance from the Environment Agency, Witham Magistrates' Court was told.

Research funding
BACad (Punch Metals), a project aimed at demonstrating the technical and economic feasibility of “full-scale bioaugmentation for the cost-efficient remediation of a large groundwater body contaminated with chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons” is among 143 LIFE+ projects that will share €186 million under the programme, which will run until 2013.

Knotweed guidance
CIRIA guidance that tackles the issue of problem plants such as Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed has been published. Invasive Species Management for Infrastructure Managers and the Construction Industry examines the issues caused by these plants along with problems caused by animals and insects.
l www.ciria.org

Dundee funding
Dundee City Council has set out plans to carry out 29 projects with £5.25 million in funding from the Scottish Government’s vacant and derelict land fund.

Research response
The Environment Agency has published a report scrutinising the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s research and development work on gas generation and migration from a geological disposal facility.

Statistical guidance
CIRIA is to examine management and interpretation of data for risk assessment on contaminated land with a view to publishing guidance on the issue.

Scots soil framework
The Scottish Government has published the responses it received to its consultation on proposals for a Scottish soil framework.
l www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/10/30102815/0

Excavation avoided
Nottingham City Council’s development control committee has heard that changes will be required to proposals for the Eastside Extended Island development after contamination was discovered on the site.

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November 2008 headlines (issue 24)

Grants window opens early
The application window for the 2009/10 contaminated land capital grants programme is now open.

Defra reports fall in flytipping rates
Flytipping in England has decreased by 7.5% in a year, according to Defra figures.

Revised directive text
A revised version of the Soil Framework Directive has entered the public domain.

Atkins updates AtRisksoil SSVs
As part of its established AtRiskSoil service, Atkins is now well on the way to rolling out a comprehensive set of updated soil screening values, developed using the updated CLEA software and new toxicological guidance.
l www.atrisksoil.co.uk

Cardiff moves forward at St Donats
Cardiff Council has informed residents of the Part 2A site on St Donats Road [see CLBs passim] that it has appointed Waterman Civils to identify the works required on each contaminated property as it moves to develop a strategy to remove the Part 2A determination, now that revised guidance is in place.

Guerrilla gardeners health warning
Environmental Protection UK has warned the growing “guerrilla gardeners” movement to be wary of planting edible crops on potentially contaminated urban land, after an article on the Incredible Edibles project in Todmorden was featured on Channel 4’s River Cottage.

Society for Brownfield Risk Assessment
The Society for Brownfield Risk Assessment is to be established to support professionals involved in assessing contamination risks on brownfield sites.
l www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=tNaBzAvq7hcEDk_2f4I60Ncw_3d_3d

Gloucester concerns over former RAF site
Gloucester City Council is to carry out site investigations adjacent to the former RAF Quedgley site, after developers identified contamination including ash and clinker containing elevated levels of heavy metals and other chemicals, some traces of cement-bonded asbestos and radium. A former landfill site to the south of the site is also emitting landfill gas.

CIEH generic assessment criteria
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and consultancy Land Quality Management have announced their intention to join with practitioners to produce a new, fully-documented set of generic assessment criteria under the revised CLEA model and associated guidance issued recently by the Environment Agency.

Arcadis to produce ground gas guidance
Arcadis GMI has been awarded a contract to develop guidance for the measurement, assessment and mitigation of risks to human health from volatile compounds generated at brownfield sites, on behalf of CIRIA.

Shaw Forest Park final phase underway
The final phase of the restoration of landfill sites at Shaw Forest Park has commenced following approval by Swindon Borough Council. This third phase applies to the final area of landfilling at Shaw, which was completed in 2005.

Entec appoints associate director
Entec has appointed Will Nitch-Smith as an associate director within its contaminated land team.

Sludge over-use
Excessive doses of organic residues on agricultural fields could be dangerous for plants, invertebrates and micro-organisms living in the soil, according to a study carried out by the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Landfill tax exemption on the way out
Contaminated soils will no longer be exempt from landfill tax after the House of Commons approved the Landfill Tax (Material from Contaminated Land) (Phasing out of Exemption) Order 2008 following a meeting of the delegated legislation committee.

£15k fine for dumped soil mountain
A huge mountain of waste soil was created on a Beaconsfield site.

Water treatment
Eureka project E!2962 Euroenviron Biosorb-Tox has succeeded in developing a water treatment system for industrial oil polluted water at a tenth of the cost of other commercially available tertiary treatments, “leaving water so clean it can be pumped safely back out to sea without endangering flora or fauna”.

Managing media relations
CLB reports from CIWEM Scotland’s annual symposium on environmental risk

Groundwater report
The Environment Agency has published Underground, Under Threat, its report on the state of groundwater in England and Wales, alongside Groundwater Protection: Policy and Practice parts one to four, which set out the Agency’s strategy for groundwater management.
l www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/waterres/groundwater/1463256/?version=1&lang=_e

Carbon8 wins higher education awards
University of Greenwich researchers behind an invention that captures carbon dioxide while stabilising contaminated soils and industrial waste have won the Times higher education award for their “outstanding contribution to innovation and technology”.

Warminster clean up
Warminster’s household waste recycling centre look set to be moved just down the road while its current site is decontaminated.

Metal tolerant rape
Plans to introduce plant-eating insects to fight Japanese knotweed should not be seen as a “magic bullet”, according to world expert Dr John Bailey of the University of Leicester.

SEPA consults
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is consulting on its proposals for groundwater assessment criteria for pollutant inputs that will prevent or limit requirements of the Water Framework and Groundwater Daughter Directives from being met.
l www.sepa.org.uk/about_us/consultations.aspx

Research group
CL:AIRE has announced that three members have joined its technology and research group.

Part 2A: who can help
LACORS has published Part 2A – Who Can Help? which provides information on organisations that can provide advice to local authorities, their role in doing so, and who should be contacted and how.
l www.lacors.gov.uk/lacors/ContentDetails.aspx?id=20453

Silt removal
Silt contaminated with oil and petrol from nearby roads will be removed from Dagenham Brook over the next six months – reducing flood risk to properties along the Dagenham Brook through Low Hall, Walthamstow, the Environment Agency said.

Part 2A seminars
Law firm Pannone and consultancy Enviros are providing in-house seminars for local authority contaminated land officers and lawyers to discuss the implications of the new guidance relating to Part 2A and give practical tips on enforcement.

HPA guidance doc
The Health Protection Agency has published Land contamination and public health: An introduction to land contamination for public health professionals.

Nanoparticle research
The Swiss Centre for Applied Ecotoxicology has been launched in Zurich

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October 2008 headlines (issue 23)

Scotland commits to action
John Mason, director of environmental quality for the Scottish government, joined SEPA chief executive Dr Campbell Gemmell and waste policy unit manager Kenny Boag in committing to action on contaminated land at the Environmental Industries Commission’s Scottish Land Remediation Conference in Glasgow.

ERA launch
The Environment Agency has launched an Ecological Risk Assessment Framework at the Royal Society.

Brownfield register revamp call
The way local authorities identify and assess land for future redevelopment could be transformed by advances in technology and changing information needs, according to a detailed study of the ten year old National Land Use Database of Previously Developed Land published by English Partnerships.
l  www.englishpartnerships.co.uk/nlud

Public enquiry into Badnell’s Pit proposals
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has completed a public enquiry into housing proposals for the heavily contaminated Badnell’s Pit site.
l www.badnellspit.com

Capping for 100 home Forfar site
Angus Council has granted planning permission for a 100 home development at Wester Restenneth on the east of Forfar. The contaminated 20 hectare site was formerly used as a landfill.

COG to fight resubmitted Cinderhill plan
A planning application for Banks Developments’ Cinderhill scheme will be resubmitted to Amber Valley Borough Council after an initial permission was thrown out by the High Court on wording technicalities following legal action brought by the Cinderhill Opposition Group backed by Friends of the Earth.

Synchrotron research unveiled
Researchers have presented the results of experiments carried out at the Diamond Light Source – a series of super-microscopes called a synchrotron – at the BA Festival of Science.

Biofilm bacteria consume arsenic
Scientists studying in Giant Mine in Canada’s sub-arctic Northwest Territories, which contains 230,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust, have discovered bacteria they believe could treat and detect arsenic pollution, the Society heard.

Ardeer clean-up to cost £13 million
A masterplan has been submitted for the 688 hectare Ardeer Peninsular site in North Ayrshire, formerly the world’s largest explosives plant, employing nearly 15,000 people.

EMDA grants £4.5 million for Steetley work
Laing O’Rourke has won a £4.65 million grant from the East Midlands Development Agency towards land remediation costs at the firm’s planned new precast concrete manufacturing plant at Steetley.

Colour-coded bacteria
Oil spills and other pollution incidents including low level leaks from underground pipes and storage tanks could be quickly and easily spotted using colour-coded bacteria, scientists heard at the Society for General Microbiology’s Autumn meeting at Trinity College, Dublin.

Metal tolerant rape
Scientists have combined heavy metal-tolerant bacteria with biofuel-feedstock oil seed rape to speed phytoremediation, the Society heard.

EPA Googles it
The US Environmental Protection Agency has used Google Earth to identify thousands of brownfield and contaminated sites that could potentially host solar, wind or biomass energy production facilities.
l www.epa.gov/renewableenergyland

Dalgety Bay finds
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has completed its monitoring programme on the foreshore at Dalgety Bay.

New job for Naylor
John Naylor has left Bury Metropolitan Borough Council to become principal contaminated land officer at Manchester’s Urban Vision Partnership, which describes itself as a “multi-disciplinary organisation delivering an range of development and regeneration services from pre-application planning advice through to comprehensive project management and scheme delivery”.
l www.urbanvision.org.uk

Call for comment
Bath’s Ciara Longman, leader of the Standing Conference on Contaminated Land’s planning sub-group, is inviting comment on a draft document, Best practice guidance on the contaminated land requirements for planning applications at submission: validation.
l The draft has been sent to contaminated land officers, and Longman said she would welcome industry comments.  ciara_longman@ bathnes.gov.uk.

UK Coal permission
UK Coal plans around 917 new homes and a business and commercial park for the 121 hectare former Prince of Wales Colliery at Pontefract.

Housing targets threat
The government’s target of building three million new homes by 2020 could be missed by up to nine years, according to National Housing Federation chief executive David Orr at the NHF annual conference.

Free gas testing
Quantitech is backing up the launch of “the world’s first truly portable FTIR multicomponent workplace gas analyser” with an offer to send the company’s Dr Andrew Hobson to visit sites and run tests free of charge.

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September 2008 headlines (issue 22)

Soils can cease to be waste
CL:AIRE has launched the Definition of Waste: Development Industry Code of Practice, which “provides a clear and concise process to determine if excavated materials on a development site are waste in the first place and identifies the point when treated waste is no longer considered to be a waste”.

Defra responds to Way Forward mauling
Defra has responded to the criticisms levelled at its Way Forward conclusions in the last issue of CLB.

US lead epidemic
Chronic lead poisoning, caused in part by the ingestion of contaminated soils, affects hundreds of thousands of children in the US, according to a study published in Applied Geochemistry.

English Partnerships in trouble
English Partnerships has admitted to CLB that the rapid slowdown in housebuilding is hitting it financially.

Herts and Beds Forum developer guide
The Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Contaminated Land Forum has published a guidance document titled Development on Potentially Contaminated Land and/or for a Sensitive End Use: Technical Guide for Planning Applicants and Developers.
l  The guidance document can be downloaded from www.dacorum.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=2247

Local authority guide to ground gas
CIEH has published the Local Authority Guide to Ground Gas, which “provides practical guidance for environmental health, contaminated land and building control officers along with others who need to undertake, manage or review ground gas assessments and design appropriate protection measures”.

Questions raised on vapour migration
A paper has been published questioning the suitability of the Johnson & Ettinger model – used to estimate vapour migration into buildings – for UK conditions, particularly new build housing. J&E is used in the recently published update of the Clea software.
l  www.ingentaconnect.com/content/epp/lcr

Spelthorne to bring landfill site into use
Spelthorne Council is carrying out investigations on a 1.2 hectare greenbelt site at Short Lane, Stanwell, with a view to bringing it back into use as a wildlife park, sports ground or a similar community resource.

WAG offers £6 million in funding
A £6 million package to help bring contaminated land back into use through Part 2A has been made available by the Welsh Assembly Government.

£4.5 million for Highland Council
Highland Council has been offered £4.5 million in funding to transform vacant and derelict land in the area by the Scottish Executive.

Asbestos waste stored on farm
A farmer who stored waste contaminated with asbestos on his land, close to work being carried out on a sea wall, has been fined £4,000 and ordered to pay full Environment Agency costs of £3,582.

Rushlight Awards call
Entries are being sought for the Rushlight Awards for environmental technologies and innovations 2008.
l www.rushlightawards.co.uk

NVZs extended
Nitrate vulnerable zones in England will be extended from 55% to around 70% under new Defra regulations.

Law firm office move
Law firm Blake Lapthorn Tarlo Lyons’ Fareham office has moved to new premises in Chandler’s Ford

NW Brownfield Forum
English Partnerships is spearheading an initiative to offer free seminars and training to encourage brownfield regeneration in the North West UK.

Darwen road renamed
A road has been renamed in honour of the founder – and chairman for over a decade – of the former Blackburn Groundwork Trust.

YCLF meeting
The fourth Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum was held on 5 September.

Dalgety Bay
Following on from previous survey and monitoring work and discussions with Defence Estates, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has undertaken a further survey of the beach at Dalgety Bay this month.

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July/August 2008 headlines (issue 21)

Capital grants up for grabs
Defra is inviting bids under the Contaminated Land Capital Projects Programme for 2008/09.
l www.defra.gov.uk/environment/land/contaminated/capital-projects-programme.htm.

BGS carries out London-wide sampling
The British Geological Survey is carrying out a baseline geochemical survey across Greater London this summer. “London Earth will provide unique information on soil chemistry in the urban environment which will be of relevance to land-use planning and development, urban regeneration and contaminated land legislation,” BGS said.

CLEA and SGVs
The Environment Agency has published a schedule for CLEA reports for 2008/09 in response to Defra’s Outcome of the way forward exercise on soil guideline values and Guidance on the legal definition of contaminated land.
l www.environment-agency.gov.uk/clea

Newtonhill groundwater tests
Further groundwater monitoring is to take place at the Newtonhill Community Woodland, near Wick in Caithness, which is currently under a temporary closure order put in place by Highland Council due to contamination with heavy metals and asbestos.

Pontesbury remediation begins
Work has started to remediate contaminated land in a number of residential properties in Minsterley Road, Pontesbury. Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council has appointed VHE Construction to undertake the works.

Scotland consults on draft soils framework
The Scottish Government is consulting on the Scottish Soil Framework, which it said will protect Scotland’s soils from pollution and climate change by promoting the sustainable management and protection of soils for the economic, social and environmental stability of the country.

CoP for construction site soil
Defra has published a draft voluntary code of practice for the management of soils on construction sites.
l Visit www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/sustainable-soil-construction

Chris Stewart joins Entec’s Leeds team
Chris Stewart has joined Entec’s contaminated land team as a technical director.

Residents fear health risks
Plans to build 492 houses on a former landfill site at Woodley, near Reading, will expose residents to unacceptable health risks, according to campaigners against the development.

EU nitrates policy not effective
The European Union should concentrate on reducing phosphorus levels in order to battle eutrophication, according to Canadian researchers who claim that nitrogen control is not effective and may actually aggravate the problem.

Ingrebourne Hill site opens to public
The Forestry Commission has opened a former landfill site in South Hornchurch as Ingrebourne Hill.

SEPA consultation
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is consulting on plans to streamline its compliance assessment scheme across four regulatory regimes and is urging operators of power stations, landfills and water and sewerage supply, fish farmers and chemical manufacturers to comment.
l Visit www.sepa.org.uk/consultation

No sludge dioxin risk
US research has confirmed there is little or no risk to human health from dioxin take-up in food crops related to the application of treated sewage sludge.

An Aird monitoring continues
Highland Council will continue monitoring in the An Aird area of Fort William, with over 100 homes and ten businesses potentially affected.

Historic gasholder demolition threat
National Grid Property has applied to demolish the remaining gasholder at the Forthquarter in Edinburgh, after a second engineering survey found it would cost £5.2m to repair and a further £2.2 million to remediate contaminated land.

Feature: The Way Backwards
Reaction to the publication of Defra’s statement on the Outcome of the way forward exercise on soil guideline values and new guidance on the legal definition of contaminated land has been far from muted.

Bomb at illegal dump
A 1,000 pound bomb found at a west Wales illegal waste dump has been destroyed by a controlled explosion.

Broughton Moor
Allerdale Borough Council and Cumbria County Council have agreed terms with the Northwest Regional Development Agency for the two councils to buy the former munitions site at Broughton Moor, as part of the Derwent Forest project.

Smart polymer’s instant mercury detection
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed plastics containing “smart elements” that can instantly detect the presence of mercury at or below the drinking water standard set by the US Environmental Protection Agency, even when other metals are present in the solution.

MCERTS gas analyser
The first portable landfill gas analysers to meet the Environment Agency’s Performance Standards for Portable Emission Monitoring Systems as part of MCERTS, its monitoring certification scheme, are Geotech’s GA2000+ and GEM2000+, which are both now available.
l www.geotech.co.uk

Geotechnical forum
A group of “like-minded organisations” from the infrastructure sector has launched the Geotechnical Asset Owners Forum.

Catto new Hyder CE
Ivor Catto will replace Tim Wade, who is retiring, as chief executive of Hyder Consulting on 1 December.

Glasgow games win
I & H Brown has secured a contract to carry out infrastructure, remediation and enabling works for the National Indoor Sports Arena and Velodrome project in Glasgow’s East End.

PCB exposure
Women exposed to high levels of PCBs are less likely to give birth to male children, according to a study published in Environmental Health.

UK referred to ECJ
The European Commission has referred the UK and eight other EU member states to the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose the Environmental Liability Directive into national law by the deadline of 30 April last year.

US brownfield funding
The US Environmental Protection Agency has announced over US$500,000 in technical assistance for 16 brownfields sustainability pilots.

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June 2008 headlines (issue 20)

UK under fire as Soil Directive rears its head
The European Commission has kick-started further debate on the proposed Soil Framework Directive by holding a “high-level conference on soil and climate change”, at which environment commissioner Stavros Dimas made his displeasure with the Environment Council’s blocking motion at the end of last year extremely clear.
l Visit http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/index.htm

Model conditions
CLG has circulated a new set of model conditions for use by local planning authorities during development of contaminated land.

Protest at Torbay gasworks
A protest has taken place against Torbay Council’s conditional planning approval for 185 flats on the former Hollicombe gasworks, which borders Preston Primary School.

Groundwater regs to change – a little
A consultation on proposed amendments to the Groundwater Regulations 1998 has been published by Defra.

York landfill – further tests
City of York Council has voted to accept a grant of £38,634 from Defra to carry out site investigation of a former landfill at Fulford.

Violet Bank garden clean-up complete
Scottish Borders Council has completed remediation of contaminated gardens at Violet Bank in Peebles, a report to its cabinet has said.

Asbestos dumped on closed landfill
A serious waste incident has led to a fine for a waste company.

Sheep fertility under the spotlight
University of Nottingham researchers will investigate the impact of chemicals found in human sewage sludge on sheep foetuses in the womb.

Longbridge plans hit BCC desk
Regeneration specialist St Modwen and Advantage West Midlands have submitted four major planning applications relating to the redevelopment of the former Longbridge works.

Stop and seize fly-tipping powers
Local authorities will gain the power to stop, search and instantly seize vehicles suspected of being involved in fly-tipping and other waste offences under Defra plans.
l www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/waste-controls

Part 2A and soils talent on the move
Keith Davidson,a Part 2A specialist, has joined Pannone in Manchester to head its environment team.

Askew joins Environ
Environ has announced the appointment of environmental impact assessment expert and soils specialist Rob Askew.

ELD warning
The Environmental Industries Commission has warned that the government is “at risk of creating further confusion over environmental liability” in its implementation of the Environmental Liability Directive.

Leachate treatment
The Environment Agency has approved the use of an innovative leachate treatment system invented by WRG.

GMPPP ground gas guidance
Greater Manchester has produced a briefing note, Development on Land Potentially Affected by Hazardous Ground Gas, to “improve the service delivery and technical consistency between member authorities of the Greater Manchester Public Protection Partnership”.

Tree planting on closed landfills
Forestry Commission research has been published which demonstrates it is safe to plant trees on capped landfill sites, the government has claimed.

Considering wildlife
Planners and landowners who ignore the potential for land contamination to affect wildlife may risk having their applications rejected unless they follow guidance introduced to help protect wildlife on or near land earmarked for development, according to Environ expert Samantha Deacon.

Croda Doncaster site
St Paul’s Developments has bought a 13 acre brownfield site from occupier Croda Chemicals and then leased back 50,000 square feet of warehouse space to the company to continue to use for one year.

Going down the garden...
CLB reports on genetic research into earthworms’ response to contamination

Leinster CBE
Acting Environment Agency chief executive Paul Leinster has been awarded a CBE for public and voluntary service.

Future land use
Foresight, the government’s “futures think tank”, will examine land use in the UK in its next report.

Waste arrests
Officers from Environment Agency Wales, assisted by Gwent Police, have arrested two directors and the previous company secretary of a Newport-based company as part of a major investigation into the illegal handling of waste.

Land use statistics
Seventy five percent of dwellings were built on previously developed land in 2007, down from 76% in 2006, according the CLG’s provisional estimates for Land Use Statistics (England) 2007.

US brownfield funding
Sixteen state or local governments are to receive brownfield remediation grants from the US Environmental Protection.

Chief planner
Steve Quartermain has been appointed chief planner by communities secretary Hazel Blears.

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May 2008 headlines (issue 19)

Tyneside shore access ban
Newcastle City Council has declared the St Anthony’s Tar Works on the banks of the Tyne as contaminated land under Part 2A, and is advising the public to stay away from a stretch of shore next the site where contaminants are most concentrated at high tide.

Go-ahead for Corby birth defect case
A case brought by 18 people who claim they were born with birth defects due to Corby Borough Council’s mismanagement of a contaminated former British Steel works will go ahead after the Court of Appeal dismissed objections to the case.

Rob Bell reports from the EPUK spring contaminated land update workshop

Waste not...
The first treated soil from the Cluster project hub site has been sent for reuse.

No U-turn in Health Protection Agency risk assessment policy, EPUK told
Contaminated Land Clarification Note 1 [see CLB Feb/March] does not represent a u-turn in Health Protection Agency policy, senior environmental scientist Dr Christopher Johnson told EPUK’s spring contaminated land update.

£7bn cost to clean up UK land
Remediating the UK’s existing stock of contaminated land will cost at least £7 billion, according to English Partnerships’ brownfield technical consultant Dr Richard Boyle, something that will “keep us all in jobs for a very long time”.

CIEH statistical analysis paper
Guidance on the use of statistical tests in the assessment of soil contamination data has been published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and CL:AIRE.

Contaminated land firm oil pollution fine
“Lack of focus” on the remediation effort followed the pollution of five kilometers of a stream and the River Thet, in Norfolk, with oil from an Attleborough haulage yard, Swaffham Magistrates heard.

Bournemouth accused on Gypsy site
Bournemouth City Council is proposing a transit Gypsy and Traveller site it said would prevent travellers staying on unauthorised sites.

Contamination from flooding
The South Yorkshire Flooding Working Group has developed a tool that provides a risk assessment framework for potential chemical contamination during flood events, following the events of last summer.

Windsor bars Badnell’s Pit plans
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has turned down a planning application for more than 400 houses and flats and an extra care housing scheme at St Mary’s Park, a large part of which is on the highly contaminated waste site at Badnell’s Pit.

Olympics remediation nearly complete
Ninety eight percent of the 2.5 square kilometre Olympic Park has now been investigated for contamination with findings in line with expectations, according to the Olympic Delivery Authority.

All change at the EA
Both chief executive Baroness Barbara Young and chairman Sir John Harman have left the Environment Agency. Young has held the post for eight years, and will join the new Care Quality Commission. She will be replaced by long-time Agency figure and current director of operations Dr Paul Leinster.

Studying nanoparticle movement
The movement of carbon-based nanoparticles in groundwater depends on the solution properties of the water carrying them, according to research carried out at Georgia Tech.

Vaz calls for remedial action
Labour’s Keith Vaz MP has met with concerned residents at the former GE Lighting factory in Leicester.

It’s the dose, stupid
Rob Bell reports on the latest non-developments in the SGV saga following Defra’s statement and the debate that followed at Environmental Protection UK’s spring contaminated land update

BRMF meeting
CIRIA’s Brownfield Risk Management Forum will hold its next event on 10 July in London.

Lakes campaign
Oxford City Council has reinforced its official backing of the Save Radley Lakes Campaign.
£16m land sale profit
Oracle Residential has made a profit of £16 million on two “heavily contaminated” ink manufacturing works sites.

EUGRIS site relaunch
The revamp of the EUGRIS website is complete, and the relaunched version is now available, offering “efficient and equal access to technical, policy and research for soil and water managers”.

Online book sale
Land contamination – Management of Financial Risk (C545) and Remedial Processes for Contaminated Land – Principles and Practice (C549) are on sale for £40 and £20 respectively from the CIRIA website. l www.ciria.org

Nabarro partner
Contaminated land lawyer Clare Deanesly has joined Nabarro from US firm Jones Day, where she headed up the company’s London environment group.

Cluster 2 project
English Partnerships is looking to build on the success of the Cluster project by taking forward Cluster 2, a further soil hub project that will include multiple sites, landowners and remediation technologies.

Downsizing at Dudley
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council has lost two of its contaminated land staff due to restructuring. The council will also cease offering a landfill search service to the public. GIS brownfield tool English Partnerships is developing a web-enabled GIS tool for brownfield site information which will be made available to local authorities, developers and the public.

Garden grabbing
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is challenging the government to give all local authorities the power to protect gardens from development.

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April 2008 headlines (issue 18)

Amber Valley own goal
Banks Developments has applied to the High Court for the quashing of its own planning permission for the Cinderhill tarpits, in a bizarre twist to the Cinderhill Opposition Group’s campaign to ensure remediation of the site.

Clean up of 43 sites to cost £8.6m
Dumfries and Galloway Council has identified 43 high-risk sites through its contaminated land inspection and assessment strategy.

Soil Strategy for UK
Defra is consulting on a draft Soil Strategy in advance of a European Directive currently stalled following blocking
l www.defra.gov.uk/corpora te/consult/soilstrategy/ index.htm

Cardiff ploughs on at St Donats
Cardiff Council will proceed with remediation of the most polluted of 110 properties in St Donats [see CLB 17] despite the lack of new soil guideline values from government.

DCLG promises guidance and national forum
Government will establish a National Brownfield Forum as part of its response to English Partnerships’ draft National Brownfield Strategy. The Forum will replace EP’s Brownfield Forum and Defra’s Contaminated Land Forum.

Poor regulation costs £200m
The Environmental Industries Commission has published survey results it said showed £200 million are being wasted annually due to flaws in the regulation of contaminated land remediation, with respondents claiming 20% of the costs and time associated with site investigation and remediation could be saved through regulatory improvements: without a loss of environmental protection.

Land report holds up much delayed estate
Former residents of the demolished Dove Gardens estate in Bogside, Derry, who have been living in rented accommodation since 2005, will have to wait even longer for new homes after contamination reports brought planning deliberations to a halt.

Giant claims for DRAM device
University of Aberdeen researchers have developed the Device for the Remediation and Attenuation of Multiple pollutants, which uses an unspecified (for commercial reasons) by-product of whisky production to remediate contaminated groundwater.

Restoration for massive tyre dump
The regeneration of a former tyre disposal ground near Doncaster is underway in order to create a new ecological area.

Chester pre-emptive testing
A former landfill site in Chester is being tested for methane and other contaminants, Chester City Council has revealed.

Reservoir threat from Peaks metals
Groundwater is under threat from heavy metals deposited on the Peak District, according the Patricia Linton of Manchester Metropolitan University, who has been studying water acidification in the area.

Long-term plan for canal corridor
Congleton Borough Council is consulting on the Middlewich Canal Corridor Area Action Plan, a planning document intended to assist in the delivery of regeneration in Middlewich up to 2026.

Homes proposal for quarry site
The Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk is considering a planning application by Orchid Properties for 33 new homes on a contaminated former quarry in Watlington, which was filled with construction and other waste.

Swindon fined for leachate failure
Swindon Council has been fined over £10,000 after between 100,000 and 300,000 litres of leachate entered Lydiard Brook from a poorly managed council-run landfill site.

New COMAH policy
Oil and fuel depots across Britain must improve environmental and safety standards for the bulk storage of hazardous liquids, following the publication of a new containment policy in the wake of the Buncefield investigation.

Solving the skills crisis
Rob Bell casts a critical eye over the draft Brownfield Skills Strategy, developed by English Partnerships and the Academy for Sustainable Communities, and aimed at solving the brownfield skills crisis

Soil treatment fine
Wantage company Farntech has been ordered to pay £4,000 for illegal depositing and treating 900 tonnes of soil and mixed construction waste without a licence.

Pesticide remediation
Organophosphate-based pesticide and nerve agent contamination could become a thing of the past following the development of a decontamination agent that leaves non-toxic by-products by US chemists.

Remediation costs
Guidance on calculating the costs associated with remediating contaminated and derelict brownfield land has been published by English Partnerships, which said it “acknowledged that tackling the problems caused by dereliction can be as complex and often as expensive as treating or removing contamination”.

Oil tanks garden leak
Oil from storage tanks behind two industrial units in Bedfordshire contaminated the garden of a neighbouring house and polluted a nearby stream, magistrates heard.

Carlisle renaissance
The University of Cumbria has announced plans to develop its estate in Carlisle, which could include development of a campus dubbed Caldew Riverside on the contaminated 13-acre Viaduct Estate site between the river and the West Coast main line.

E-learning from CIRIA
CIRIA will develop the UK’s first e-learning platform for contaminated land practitioners in response to English Partnerships’ call for “a national brownfield web with e-learning capabilities” in its Draft Brownfield Skills Strategy.

Waste definition CoP
CL:AIRE is consulting on a draft voluntary code of practice it said would “answer the thorny question of when materials are waste, and when treated wastes cease to be waste”.

ELD consultation
The government is consulting on draft regulations for the transposition of the Environmental Liability Directive.

Seven years on the run
Peter James Fitzgerald has been sentenced to three months prison for what District Judge Daniel Curtis called “the worst case of fly-tipping I have ever seen”.

US brownfield funding
The US Environmental Protection Agency has announced $74 million in funding for its Brownfields Programme. The cash will be split between 43 states, two Native American tribes and two US territories.

Feb/March 2008 headlines (issue 17)

Rebate for St Donats homes
Cardiff Council has negotiated a council tax band reduction for residents of 110 homes affected by contamination in the St Donats Road area of Leckwith, after property values plummeted by £50-60,000.

HPA SGV u-turn
The Health Protection Agency has done an about-turn on the use of the excess lifetime cancer risk approach to risk assessment proposed in Defra’s Way Forward document on soil guideline values, despite having been heavily involved in developing the paper.

Stroud despairs of Defra funding
Stroud District Council is in discussions with potential contractors to go ahead with remediation of the former Painswick Gasworks.

Illegal landfills on the rise
Illegal landfills are springing up around the UK – and many will not be remediated – the Environment Agency has confirmed to CLB in the wake of two successful prosecutions.

Warrington appropriate person blunder
Warrington Council made just one simple legal blunder in its management of a contaminated land case, which has seen it censured by the Local Government Ombudsman.

ETV scoping study
CL:AIRE has been commissioned by the Environmental Knowledge Transfer Network to undertake a scoping study on the UK land, water, waste sectors’ opinions on environmental technology verification in response to the European Commission’s consultation paper on its proposals to “establish an EU-wide system, offering credible verification of the performance and the potential impacts on the environment of new technologies”.

Information systems
The European Commission is moving to “improve, modernise and streamline” systems for collecting, analysing and reporting environmental information with the aim of developing an internet database that will be available to the public in an “open and transparent way”.

Ravenscraig next WRAP project
The former Ravenscraig Steelworks in North Lanarkshire will be the next WRAP trailblazer project investigating how high quality compost can assist in the regeneration and remediation of brownfield sites.
l Visit www.wrap.org.uk

Nanotech to gain “green tinted halo”
This year could see the public’s “demonisation” of nanotechnology reversed and a “green-tinged halo could replace its horns” if environmental applications of nanoparticles are publicised effectively, according to Deloitte’s Technology Predictions TMT Trends 2008.
l The report can be downloaded from www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0%2C1002%2Ccid%25253D187257%2C00.html

Improved sediment analysis
A new method that looks set to revolutionise the analysis of contaminants in sediment has been developed in the US.
l For a summary of the method (Designation D 7363 – 07) visit www.astm.org or www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/test/new-meth.htm#8272

Notorious Whittle Colliery up for auction
The former Whittle Colliery in Alnwick will be sold at auction on May 13 with a guide price of £4 million.

Yorkshire forum
The first meeting of the Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum was held on 15 February at the University of Sheffield. The event focused on waste issues in land reclamation, and was attended by 90 representatives of organisations involved in all sectors of the land quality community in Yorkshire and beyond.

Centre of excellence
The West Midlands Centre of Excellence in Land Reclamation has been launched by RegenWM. The centre will aim to “encourage cross-professional and cross-sector dialogue with the goal of improving the supply of brownfield land into the development process”.

Permission for Banks but Fairgrove battles on at Cinderhill
Amber Valley Borough Council has granted outline planning permission for the proposed development of the Cinderhill Opencast Site in Denby [see CLBs passim].

Ensura launches low-cost policy
The UK’s first low-cost contaminated land insurance offering has been launched, according to mastermind Stephen Sykes. Ensura, a specialist environmental insurance intermediary, will provide indemnity-related services to legal professionals, and offer Terrafirm, a low-cost contaminated land policy for commercial property that covers purchasers, tenants and funders.
l Visit www.sykesenvironmental.com

Nitrates remediation
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Dr Ian Paisley has visited the ECOS Millennium Environmental Centre to see a natural system to remove nitrates from groundwater being developed by Nitrabar, a research project involving the University of Strathclyde and European partners.
l www.nitrabar.eu

Akzo Nobel site permission
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council has granted planning permission for the second stage of remediation and redevelopment of the former Akzo Nobel site in Littleborough [see CLB 11].

Essex updates developer guidance
The second edition of Land Affected by Contamination: Technical Guidance for Applicants and Developers has been published by the Essex Contaminated Land Consortium.

Highland Council An Aird landfill probe
The Highland Council is investigating land at An Aird, Fort William, which was reclaimed by landfilling with materials including dredging, commercial and municipal waste.

Watercourse PPGs
The Environment Agency has published Pollution Prevention Guidelines providing advice on avoiding pollution of watercourses during construction works.
l http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/ppg

Soil chemistry book
The second edition of US publication The Soil Chemistry of Hazardous Materials is now available.
l www.aehs.com/publications/ordering.htm

Illegal landfill fine
Wilson Fulton of Randalstown has been convicted at Antrim Magistrates’ Court for offences under Waste Legislation and Contaminated Land (NI) Order 1997. ed £1,000 plus £172 costs.

WRAP dumps protocol
WRAP has confirmed to CLB that it will not go ahead with a contaminated land protocol, but will progress with a quality protocol for uncontaminated land. The abandoned protocol was one of five being considered by the organisation.

Derby investigates
Derby City Council will carry out further site investigations at Becket Primary School.

Deacon joins
Environ Samantha Deacon has joined Environ as a senior consultant in contaminated land, environmental impact assessment and other practices.

Improving Part 2A
Rob Bell reports on the conclusions of an Environment Agency-led workshop which set out to investigate how the faltering Part 2A regime can be revamped and revitalised

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January 2008 headlines (issue 16)

East Cambs admits fault as funding finally forthcoming
East Cambridgeshire District Council has finally received confirmation from Defra that it will receive a grant to part-fund remediation at Old School Close/Ponts Hill in Littleport.

Seaton Carew celebrates Defra grant win
Residents of Seaton Carew, outside Hartlepool, are celebrating after receiving Defra funding for remediation of their properties, following a three-year battle.

Cooper sets out new agency’s role
Housing minister Yvette Cooper has spelt out the role of the new Homes and Communities Agency in the House of Commons.

Holiday village voted down
Blackburn with Darwen councillors have refused planning permission for a £13 million holiday village scheme on a former illegal waste dump in Feniscowles.

St Michael’s golf course funding in place
Halton Borough Council has gained further funding for investigations at the St Michael’s golf course.

Appointments at EP
English Partnerships has expanded its specialist brownfield team, a move it said broadened the expertise it needs to assess brownfield sites and determine future developments.

Ecosystems approach
Defra has published an “action plan” it said sets a new direction for policy on the natural environment.

Soil Directive in disarray
The contents of the proposed Soil Framework Directive have caused concern across Europe, with governments, regulators, environmental groups, contractors and academics all expressing concerns that it would be too prescriptive and unworkable.

Olympic Park works intensify
The Olympic Delivery Authority has said that clearing and remediation of the Olympic Park is set to intensify as it prepares the site for the start of construction in summer.

Wolverhampton steelworks under way
Woodford Land has submitted a planning application for a redevelopment of the 10.4 acre former steelworks site bordering the Birmingham Canal in Wolverhampton.

Oil tank MOT
The Environmental Industries Commission has called for a “mandatory MOT” scheme to cover all commercial oil tanks over 200 litres. The EIC claimed this would cut oil spills by at least a third.

Tanker discharge fine
A tanker under contract to Lincolnshire County Council emptied its contents onto a grass verge between Manthorpe and Thurlby costing the company a £5,000 fine and £2,478 costs.

Soil mixing research underway
Dr Abir Al-Tabbaa of Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering has joined with eleven industrial partners in the £1.24m SMiRT (Soil Mix Remediation Technology) Project.

US GMO poplar trials approved
Researchers at Indiana’s Purdue University are following up the research on phytoremediation using transgenic poplars reported in last month’s CLB through collaboration with automobile manufacturer Chrysler to remediate a former oil storage facility near Kokomo in the state.

No to nanoparticles
The Soil Association has banned the use of man-made nanomaterials from all Soil Association certified organic products.

Transforming Teesside
The University of Teesside’s Clean Environment Management Centre (CLEMANCE) is to extend its BioReGen project following successful trials.

Solway monitoring
Specialist monitoring at several River Solway beaches has detected no Sellafield radioactive particles present.

Envirotreat funding
The Sustainable Technology Fund managed by E-Synergy has invested £1 million in contaminated soil and waste remediation specialist Envirotreat.

Remediation for Robin Bank
Blackburn with Darwen Council has secured funding from the Lancashire Remade programme to remediate the former gasworks site off Robin Bank Road in Darwen.

Cory opens soils landfill near Bristol
Cory Environmental has opened a landfill site at Shortwood near Bristol which will take contaminated soils. The site is licensed to take 200,000 tonnes of waste each year for ten years – two million cubic metres in total.

Thames Gateway CE
Joe Montgomery – currently director general for regions and communities at DCLG – has replaced Judith Armitt as chief executive of the Thames Gateway project.

EPUK website
The former NSCA has launched its new identity online at www.environmental-protection.org.uk.

Drigg fund
Residents in Copeland could soon be benefiting from a community fund negotiated with the government to recognise the service the borough provides to the nation by hosting the Low Level Waste Repository near the village of Drigg.

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December 2007 headlines (issue 15)

Cinderhill deferred again
Amber Valley Borough Council has once again been forced to defer a decision on the Cinderhill redevelopment.

Charity predator brought to book
A “charity predator” who conned organisations including a riding school for the disabled into accepting thousands of tonnes of demolition rubble contaminated with benzene and Japanese knotweed has been ordered to pay £12,000 in fines.

Defra team walks
Publication of soil guideline values looks likely to recede yet further beyond the horizon with the resignation of three of the four members of Defra’s contaminated land policy team.

Red river to run red no more
An Environment Agency trial to remove contamination from the Afon Goch – “Red River” – which runs from Parys Mountain on the Isle of Anglesey through the town of Parys Mountain, Anglesey, could mean the minewater-contaminated stream loses its historic colour.

Stroud left with the bill for gasworks site
Stroud District Council will pay for remediation of the former Painswick Gasworks to the tune of £35,000, “in light of withdrawn Defra funding”, the council’s cabinet has agreed.

Bubble trouble in Linwood
Renfrewshire Council has begun an investigation of the former Brediland Chemical Works and Sun Foundry sites in Linwood after black sludge bubbled to the surface on areas of open ground near a skatepark, sports centre and children’s park.

Government clears Bishopton proposals
The Scottish Government’s Examination in Public of proposals for the former Royal Ordinance Factory site at Bishopton [see CLB 1 and 5] has found “no evidence that there is contamination on the ROF site precludes identifying Bishopton as a Community Growth Area”.

Students conquer at GE machine awards
A team of University of Glasgow students has designed a self-powered biosensor, winning the environment section of the International Genetically Engineered Machine awards

Scotland land fears
As many as one in five residential properties in Scotland have been built directly on top of potentially contaminated land, according to environmental search provider Landmark Information Group.

Relief for Millom residents
Residents of Estuary Close and Lancashire Road in Millom are not living on contaminated land, Copeland Borough Council has announced, following an investigation by consultancy RSK.

GMO poplars hoover up hydrocarbons
Genetically engineered poplars have been shown to uptake and metabolise as much as 91% of trichloroethylene from a liquid solution, compared with just 3% for unaltered plants.

Wheal Maid tin mine waste
The Wheal Maid site at Gwennap near Redruth is contaminated with arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, zinc, lead and nickel, an Environment Agency investigation has found.

Warning on petrol tank removal
Trading Standards has intervened five times this year to ensure petrol tanks have been made safe, it said while calling for the rapid removal of disused petrol tanks from former garage sites as part of a county-wide campaign to minimise the risk of explosion and pollution.

Morgan joins Sirius Engineering
Professor Phil Morgan has joined the Sirius Engineering Group.

Park for Church
A Contaminated land in Church left derelict for a quarter of a century has been turned into a park and playing field by Lancashire County Council’s Remade in Lancashire programme.

Heavy metal impacts
Heavy metals in sewage sludge can damage microbial populations in soil, potentially damaging soil quality, long-term government research has found. The findings have implications for the spreading of sewage sludge on agricultural land, seen as preferable to landfilling or incineration, and carried out to increase nutrients and organic matter levels in soils.

Asbestos fine
The removal of asbestos from a garage at a house in Ken has landed two companies with fines after the waste was mixed with hazardous materials and taken to a landfill site.

Eroding cliff raises landfill fears
A former landfill site on an eroding sea-cliff is causing concern for Sunderland City Council, which called in the Environment Agency to investigate the Halliwell Banks site after reports waste was surfacing metres from the cliff face near Ryhope.

Blessed newt
Actor and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust president Brian Blessed (seen here accompanied by a great crested newt) has presented landscaping manufacturing company Marshalls with the Wildlife Trusts' Biodiversity Benchmark award. Marshalls' Maltby site is the first manufacturing operation to gain the accreditation.
l  www.biodiversitybenchmark.org

Arsenic affects genes
Researchers at MIT have found that the children of mothers exposed to arsenic through contaminated water supplies during pregnancy harbour gene expression changes that may lead to cancer and other diseases later in life.
l Published in PLoS Genetics. Visit http://genetics.plosjournals.org.

Strong directive call
The European Environment Bureau has called on the Environment Council not to weaken the contents of the proposed Soil Framework Directive ahead the meeting of environment ministers on 20 December.

Hazardous waste down
Less hazardous waste is being sent to landfill, 60% less than in 2004, and more of it is being treated and recycled, according to the Environment Agency.”
l www.environment-agency.gov.uk

Agency soil strategy
The Environment Agency has published a strategy aimed at protecting soils prioritising its work in a number of areas including “promoting good practice by industry to prevent new contamination of soils and working to clean-up existing contamination”.
l Visit www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/landquality/1730389/.

Steetley go-ahead
Laing O’Rourke’s proposals for a factory on the site of the former Baker Refractory Works at Steetley look set to proceed after district councillors from Bassetlaw and Bolsover agreed to back the plan.
l www.steetleyfuture.co.uk.

SHDC sees sense
South Holland District Council has decided against designating land at Tydd St Mary as a traveller site after concerns were raised by councillors and local residents that raw sewage was present just below the surface. Tydd St Mary Parish Council has previously refused to put allotments on the land on health grounds.

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November 2007 headlines (issue 14)

Brickworks blight lifted after two year investigation
A contamination investigation sparked by failed environmental searches at Dorking’s North Holmwood Estate has been completed by Mole Valley District Council.

Defra grants chaos
Local authorities have been given just one month to make applications under the the Contaminated Land Capital Projects scheme due to “budgeting and the design of the grant arrangements”, Defra has admitted to CLB.
l www.defra.gov.uk/environment/land/contaminated/index.htm

ODA to switch Olympics venue
Contamination has scuppered the Olympic canoe slalom site at Spitalbrook, adjacent to the Lee Valley Park. An alternative site nearby is now being considered.

Bonkers Part 2A BVPI bites the dust
The much-reviled contaminated land best value performance indicator has been scrapped in what the Local Government Association called “a bonfire of red tape” that saw the number of BVPIs slashed from over 1,000 to 198.

Acid tar report inconclusive
A hoped for Part 2A determination will not be forthcoming from the Environment Agency Wales’ investigation of acid tar contamination at the Llwyneinion lagoon near Rhosllanerchrugog.

Protests at Defra policy team transfer
Defra’s decision to transfer its contaminated land policy branch from the local environmental protection division to the environmental land management division has sparked a letter of protest from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and Environmental Protection UK to environment minister Jonathan Shaw.

Permission despite policy change
The Woodford Group has convinced Wyre Borough Council to grant outline planning permission for an 83-property housing development on a contaminated brownfield site in Poulton-Le-Fylde, despite a change in council policy demanding 40% affordable housing, double that required when Woodford acquired the site.

Salad herb solution to chromium VI
A University of Huddersfield student has identified a plant which hyper-accumulates hexavalent and trivalent chromium.

Brownfield skills review
Government has moved to address the desperate skills shortage in the brownfield sector with a national review “designed to identify the true extent of the perceived skills gap in the brownfield sector”, to be carried out for English Partnerships by the Academy for Sustainable Communities.
l Visit www.englishpartnerships.co.uk/publications.

Durham decision over-ruled
Remediation costs have led the government to overrule Durham County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for a housing project on the heavily contaminated Cape Asbestos site at Bowburn.

All change at CL:AIRE
Both chief executive Jane Forshaw and chairman Phil Kirby are leaving CL:AIRE. Kirby is retiring from National Grid and stepping down as chair, while Forshaw is taking a position as head of environmental policy at English Partnerships.
l Anyone with an interest in either of the positions should contact Forshaw on 020 7258 5321 or executive search firm Odgers Ray & Berndtson on 020 7529 1079.

Mercury analyser
Quantitech has launched an addition to the Hydra range of mercury analysers: the Hydra-C.
l www.quantitech.co.uk.

Huntly remediation
Remediation under Part 2A of the former Huntly Gasworks in Aberdeenshire has been completed by Environmental Reclamation Services following the award of a £173,000 contract by Aberdeenshire Council.

Yorkshire forum
A Yorkshire Contaminated Land Forum has been launched, following on from the success of the North East forum.
l Contact andrew.dickinson @ BWB-consulting.com.

Radiation find
A gauge dial face painted with radium-based luminous paint has been found in the north of the Olympic Park site, along with other very low-level radioactive readings in small areas.
l www.london2012.com.

York research
A team of University of York scientists have successfully genetically engineered grasses that remediate land contaminated with RDX, the world’s most commonly used explosive.
l The research is published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Firth goes solo
Simon Firth, formerly of WorleyParsons Komex, is now an independent consultant working as Firth Consultants.
l Contact 07766 224363,

A greener greenbelt
Natural England has called for a review of greenbelt protection. Chair Sir Martin Doughty said: “The time has come for a greener green belt. We need a 21st century solution to England’s housing needs which puts in place a network of green wedges, gaps and corridors, linking the natural environment and people.”

CIRIA guidance
A revised edition of CIRIA’s guidance Setting-out procedures for the modern built environment has been published.
l www.ciriabooks.com.

EP research project
English Partnerships is commissioning research in the South East into ‘latent brownfield sites’ in order to establish why some previously developed land is not coming through for redevelopment.

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Oct 2007 headlines (issue 13)

HPA issues final all-clear for Leftwich housing estate
Resident of the Muir Housing Estate in Leftwich have received a final assurance by the Health Protection Agency that their homes and gardens are safe

Good news for Nottingham centre
Nottingham’s ambitious regeneration plans have moved a step forward after city leaders gave outline planning permission for the £390 million scheme, to be led by English Partnerships and ISIS.

AVBC defers Cinderhill decision
Amber Valley Borough Council has deferred its decision on the proposed remediation and redevelopment of the Cinderhill tarpits site near Denby.

Funding approval for Pontesbury costing
Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council has approved £40,000 in funding to carry out further investigations into contamination in eight gardens in the Shropshire village of Pontesbury.

Plymouth considers legal action
Plymouth City Council is considering legal action against Persimmon Homes after the developer ignored a four-week Stop Notice issued after works were started before soil investigations required under planning conditions were carried out.

Barnsley to remediate gasworks site
Contaminated land at a former gasworks and British Gas depot will be remediated as part of plans by Barnsley Council to build a bypass to cut congestion and improve air quality in the town’s Air Quality Management Areas.

£500m to accelerate house-building
A £500m package of proposals “to accelerate the building of the homes, ensuring that new homes are greener and the focus is on brownfield land,” has been announced by housing minister Yvette Cooper.

Young warns on skills and SFD
Environment Agency chief executive Baroness Barbara Young has highlighted the need to raise skill levels in the contaminated land sector in order to retain the UK's “pole position” in risk assessment in Europe.

Microbe shows biosensor potential
Australian researchers are investigating the potential of a water microbe to act as a biosensor.

Fine for coal-tar soil removal
The excavation and removal of coal-tar contaminated soils from a development site in Normanton has left Brian Stringer of Glasshoughton, Castleford and his company Brian Stringer Ltd with fines and costs totalling £25,000.

East Cambs still waiting for Defra funding
East Cambridgeshire District Council is still awaiting a decision from Defra regarding its funding application for remediation of the Littleport gasworks site

Soil link to foot and mouth outbreak
Soil contamination caused by leaking pipes led to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Surrey at the beginning of August, an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive has found.

Agency pursues fly-tippers
The Environment Agency has had success with two prosecutions relating to soil contamination due to fly-tipping in quick succession, with tens of thousands of pounds in fines and costs awarded.

Pre-Budget report promises reform
The future of the current exemption from Landfill Tax for waste arising from contaminated land and proposed changes to land remediation relief will be decided in the 2008 Budget, according to the pre-Budget Report presented by Chancellor Alistair Darling to the House of Commons.

EIC calls for clear guidance timetable
The “painfully slow progress” in publishing guidance on contaminated land risk assessment has been highlighted in a letter from the Environmental Industries Commission to environment minister Jonathan Shaw.

British Waterways
Three new members with specialist expertise in civil engineering/asset management and finance have been appointed to the board of British Waterways.

Gas detector rentals
Ashtead Technology Rentals has launched a new fleet of instruments designed specifically to detect toxic and hazardous gases arising in drains and underground cavities.

CRT re-appointment
Dawn Davies has been reappointed as the Welsh Assembly government’s nominated Wales director/trustee to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. Deputy minister for regeneration Leighton Andrews said he was “delighted” she had agreed to continue her work with the Trust.

Edie awards
Consultancy Enviros has been nominated in seven categories for the Edie Awards for Environmental Excellence, including Best Consultancy for Contaminated Land alongside ERM, Atkins Environmental, Conestoga-Rovers & Associates and White Young Green Environmental.

HPA sports pitch info
The Health Protection Agency has issued advice on contamination of sports pitches following this summer’s flooding.
l Visit www.hpa.org.uk

SNIFFER projects
SNIFFER has called for expressions of interest in two new projects: WFD94 – WFD and Catchment Remediation Scoping Study and UKCC18 – Selection and validation of a suite of suitable screening techniques for the rapid assessment of hazardous properties of wastes.
l Visit www.sniffer.org.uk/search.asp

Glasgow regeneration
The regeneration of Glasgow’s canal corridor has reached a “major milestone” with the unveiling of the proposed masterplan for the area around Maryhill Locks.

Website launch
CL:AIRE has launched a new website, featuring a range of new online tools and services for the contaminated land community.
l Visit www.claire.co.uk

Dounreay relocations
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority officials are looking at a range of Dounreay-based services, including non-active laboratories and the asbestos team, that could be relocated off-site and “nurtured to form stand-alone business with a range of different customers”. “

VOC risk project
A project is being launched by CIRIA to analyse the risks of chemicals on contaminated land to human health.

Superfund extended
The US Environmental Protection Agency has added seven new hazardous waste sites to the Superfund list for investigation and clean-up.

Rushlight call
The Rushlight Awards scheme will close for entries on 31 October 2007.
l www.rushlightawards.co.uk

Correction
The article titled Testing methods scrutinised in the last issue [ CLB 12] should have referred to the Bioavailability Working Group as being a CL:AIRE initiative rather than associated with Defra.

Envirocheck update
November will see the launch of a new version of Landmark’s flagship Envirocheck desktop site investigation report, Richard Pawlyn, managing director of the company’s Property & Environment division, has told CLB.

France off the hook
The European Commission has suspended its decision to bring France before the European Court of Justice for a second time in a case for polluting drinking water abstraction points in Brittany with nitrates.

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Aug/Sep 2007 headlines (issue 12)

Managing Manywells
MWH has been awarded a three-year contract to provide the technical lead on remediation of the closed Manywells landflll site by City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

Brownfield stocks insufficient
The UK's brownfield land can only accommodate one million of the government’s planned three million new houses, even if city parks and back gardens are included, according to the Social Market Foundation.

Rogers in action
City of York Council has responded to the findings of the Rogers Review of Local Authority Regulatory Priorities, part of the government’s Better Regulation drive [see CLB 7, March] following a meeting of its neighbourhood services panel.
l Visit www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ regulation/documents/rogers_review/rogers_poster.pdf

York contamination widespread
Contamination is widespread across the 80-acre York Central site destined for a huge redevelopment project, a draft area action plan for the York North-West development, prepared for the City of York Council by planning consultancy Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners has found.

Nature reserve opens at Avenue site
The Avenue Washlands Nature Reserve has been opened on one of the most contaminated sites in Western Europe, the 98 hectare Avenue Coking Works near Chesterfield.

Testing methods scrutinised
Uncertainties about the validity and use of bioaccessibility testing are to be addressed by the formation of an expert panel, which will produce a guidance document for practitioners and instigate and guide research in the area.

Mushroom promises metals remediation
A global effort to sequence the genome of Agaricus bisporus – the common mushroom of the full English breakfast – could lead to a new method of bioremediating metals-contaminated soils, according to Dr Mike Challen of the University of Warwick, which is co-ordinating the project.

Nene land jigsaw complete
Fenland District Council has “completed the jigsaw” of land acquisitions necessary for the Nene Waterfront Regeneration project to begin.

Clean up for Rochdale bus station site
Remediation and flood defences work to the tune of £800,000 will commence in preparation for building of a multi-million pound public transport interchange in Rochdale, the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority has announced.

Sellafield clean-up commences
Serco Assurance, in partnership with Golder Associates, has been awarded a £10m two-year contract to examine and develop plans to clean up contaminated land at Sellafield.

Marina project
A scheme to develop a marina and 800 home development in King’s Lynn has been approved by councillors. Work will now begin to put together an outline planning application, along with environmental and transport assessments before the project can move forward.

Consent for Kirkstall Forge
Leeds City Council has granted planning consent for redevelopment of the former Kirkstall Forge, three miles north west of the city centre.

Directive consultation
The government has issued a consultation on the proposed EU Soil Framework Directive and initial Regulatory Impact Assessment, designed to assist in developing a robust negotiating position on the proposed directive.

ISO standard 17924
The ISO committee on soil quality is developing a standard on “assessment of human exposure from ingestion of soil and soil material – guidance on the application and selection of physiologically based extraction methods for the estimation of the human bioaccessibility/ bioavailability of metals in soils”.

Asbestos case assets frozen
Restraint orders to freeze properties owned by a Bradford man jailed for dumping asbestos have been obtained by the Assets Recovery Agency, working in partnership with the Environment Agency, which told CLB: “This is a good win for the Agency, legitimate businesses and the environment – and shows we’re using all the tools at our disposal to crackdown on these criminals.”

NSCA calls out HPA on brownfield claim
The NSCA has written to Health Protection Agency chief executive Pat Troop to protest against her claim that knowledge of health effects of contaminants is “very limited”.

LK Group recruits
Environmental land consultancy LK Group has boosted its technical team with the appointment of Dr Paul Quimby as senior geoenvironmental scientist.

Glasgow canals
The regeneration of Glasgow’s canal corridor has “reached a major milestone” with the publication of the proposed masterplan for the area around Maryhill Locks.

The quarry quandary
Brofiscin Quarry was identified as heavily contaminated in 2003, yet investigations into possible human health risks are still going on.

Barking
Barking Riverside, the joint venture between Bellway and English Partnerships, has announced the receipt of planning consent following the signing of the Section 106 agreement with the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham.

Agency factsheet
The Environment Agency has published a factsheet for the contaminated land sector setting out changes to landfill regulations due to come into force from 30 October.
l The factsheet is available to download at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/landfilldirective or by calling 0870 8506 506.

PPP schools deal
West Dunbartonshire Council has granted outline planning permission for a controverdsial £100 million PPP school-building scheme, despite concerns over land contamination on one of the sites that would become part of two ‘super-schools’ if the plan goes ahead.

Asbestos burial fine
A developer and a Brotherton man have been fined £1,500 after being found guilty of burying asbestos on a site known as Bunkers Hill in Brotherton, south east of Leeds.

Welsh guidance
Welsh environment, sustainability and housing minister Jane Davidson has published draft planning Technical Advice Note 17 Planning and Managing Development for public consultation.

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July 2007 headlines (issue 11)

The fate of the contaminated land best value performance indicators looks to have been sealed, with the Lifting the Burdens Taskforce review of Defra recommending their immediate removal, and no sign of a land quality indicator in the Defra consultation on the new performance framework for local government.
l The Defra consultation on a new performance framework runs until 16 August. Visit www.defra.gov.uk/environment/localgovindicators/index.htm

SGVs: way forward still unclear
It may not be possible to provide a full set of soil guideline values, Defra head of local environmental protection Sue Ellis has told the Environmental Industries Commission’s National Land Remediation Conference.

Strategy at last
English Partnerships’ National Brownfield Strategy has finally been submitted to government.
l Visit www.english partnerships.org.uk

Floodplain tip site project
Woking Council has gained planning permission for a project which will lead to the remediation of the contaminated Westfield Tip, a goal the council has been seeking since 1989.

Akzo Nobel site to become wetland reserve
The first stage of redevelopment of the former Akzo Nobel chemical works in Littleborough, Greater Manchester, has been approved.

Campaigner under attack
Countryside Properties has pulled out of the proposed redevelopment of the former Turners Brothers asbestos factory, leading landowners MMC Developments and Rathbone Jersey to publicly attack local opposition to the scheme, led by Jason Addy of the Save Spodden Valley campaign.

Agency launches landfill data tool
A CD-based tool to provide local planning authorities with data on former landfill sites has been launched by the Environment Agency.

Inquiry into Cranleigh plans
An Inquiry into proposals for the remediation and redevelopment of the contaminated former Cranleigh Brick and Tile Works has been scheduled for 30 October, CLB has learned.

Continuous gas monitoring device
A continuous gas monitoring device developed by Salamander looks set to improve investigation, assessment and monitoring on contaminated brownfield sites.
l www.gasclam.co.uk

Welsh Assembly splashes out
The Welsh Assembly has allocated nearly £2 million for site investigation and remediation of 43 local authority and Environment Agency projects.

Dumped caustic soda contamination
Forty tonnes of contaminated soil has been removed from a carpark at Castle Hills, east of Leeds, following the fly-tipping of a large amount of caustic soda, the Environment Agency has said.

Stockport tests at bleachworks site
Stockport Council has begun testing for contamination on the site of a former Sykes & Co bleachworks.

Scottish soil hospital
Shanks Waste Management has opened a soil treatment centre licensed to treat up to 200,000 tonnes per annum, located near Falkirk, Scotland.

Looking for answers
Pioneering research into the impact of contaminants on sheep may hold important lessons in terms of human health. But it’s not easy, as CLB discovers

Chorley remediation
Contaminated silt will be removed and mineshafts filled and capped in Chorley’s Big and Copperworks woods, in a £588,000 project to begin in September.

Bawtry remains a quandary
The House of Lords had ruled in National Grid Gas’ appeal in the Bawtry gasworks case. CLB analyses the consequences of their decision

Stock transfer checks
Ground investigations are to be carried out at seven sites around Inverclyde as part of a housing stock transfer process.

Call to protect Scottish soils
Scotland’s soils are coming under threat from a range of human activities which may impair clean drinking water supplies, wildlife habitats and agriculture, according to Dr Colin Campbell, head of soil research at Aberdeen’s Macaulay Institute.

Awards scheme
An award for “the most significant technological development or innovation that prevents, reduces or treats pollution or other such contamination on land” has been launched as part of the Rushlight Awards, a new scheme intended to “celebrate” UK and Irish achievements in environmental technology and innovation.
l www.rushlightawards.co.uk

Newlands funding
An additional £36 million has been granted for the Newlands programme.

Developer spells out barriers to progress
Landowners blocking redevelopment and a “lack of positive planning” from local authorities are the biggest barriers to contaminated land remediation and redevelopment, Anthony Glossop, chair of St Modwen Properties, has told a Environmental Industries Commission conference.

Clydesdale go-ahead
North Lanarkshire Council has granted planning permission for Banks Developments’ £110m plan to regenerate the site of the former Clydesdale steel works near Motherwell. The redevelopment will involve the remediation of contaminated land followed by the construction of over 500 homes.

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June 2007 headlines (issue 10)

Dioxins in soils fall by 70% as regulation takes effect
A study has found that concentrations of dioxins have fallen by about 70% since the late 1980s when restrictions on emissions from major industries were introduced.

White paper conflict
The government has published its planning white paper Planning for a Sustainable Future, amidst claims it would lead to anything but.

Garden lead find in Shropshire
Eight gardens in Pontesbury, Shropshire are contaminated with lead “several orders of magnitude above government limits”, an investigation for Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council by consultancy Enviros has discovered.

Permission granted despite opposition
Epping Forest District Council has granted outline planning permission for a 119 home development on a greenfield site contaminated with asbestos on its border with the London Borough of Waltham Forest, despite an objection from the neighbouring council.

Ground gas training
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health is holding a series of workshops titled Contaminated land training: ground gas practical guidance in conjunction with the release of the Ground Gas Handbook, a new technical guidance document “for contaminated land and building control officers who carry out and review ground gas assessments and oversee appropriate control and protection measures”.
l Visit www.cieh.org.

Carlisle investigation
Plans for a 132 home development in Carlisle have been withdrawn pending contaminated land investigations of the former landfill site.

Dirty drains warning
 One in five homes and businesses have drains illegally connected to clean water drainage systems causing groundwater pollution and damaging rivers and lakes, according to a report published by the Environment Agency.

Chemicals ban boosts otters
Otter populations are recovering as banned pesticides break down in soils, according to Environment Agency research. Scientists will now investigate the impacts of polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ether.

Unprecedented concern over £4bn directive
Implementation of the Soil Framework Directive could cost the UK nearly £4 billion in development of a contaminated land register alone, with the cost of blight “unquantified”, an SFD stakeholder workshop meeting has been told.

Lords attack nuclear plans
The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has attacked the government’s proposals for the next phase of the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely programme, calling it “incoherent and opaque”.

Emap moves on Groundsure
Media giant Emap is to acquire environmental search company Groundsure for a total of £34 million. Financial Services Authority approval is all that is required for the purchase to go ahead.

Doubts over dredging effectiveness
Dredging of contaminated sediments from watercourses may not “reduce the long-term risks sediments pose to people and wildlife”, a research project by the US National Research Council has found.

York reopens Fulford Cross
City of York Council has reopened the Fulford Cross allotments [see CLB 4], following a contamination investigation.

Biffa to open south east soil clinic
The first soil hospital to serve the London and south east markets will open at the Colnbrook landfill near Slough in September. The construction of the ex situ contaminated soil treatment centre will double Biffa’s capacity to deal with contaminated soils, the company said.

Re-use planned for canal silt
Works to remediate a 315-metre section of the derelict Hereford and Gloucester canal is taking place as part of the development of Aylestone Park.

Imported soils remediation complete
Southampton City Council has re-opened the Radcliffe Road South allotments following a remediation project funded by Defra and a Section 106 agreement with developers of an adjacent housing project.

The problem with soil hubs
Soil hubs where contaminated soils could be treated for re-use have been hailed as the solution to landfill. But where are they?

Biodegradable ban
The government is considering banning biodegradable waste from landfill sites as part of a new strategy.

Landfill guidance
The Environment Agency has published a factsheet to help landfill operators understand their role when changes to landfill regulations come into play later this year.
l Call 08708 506 506.

Clean soil reuse
Clean soil from greenfields and development sites has been selected as one of five waste streams to be the focus of the second year of the Waste Protocols project, a partnership project between industry, the Environment Agency and WRAP aimed at making the waste easier to recycle and reuse.

LBRO appointments
Graham Russell has been appointed chief executive of the newly established Local Better Regulation Office, effective from 1 September. Hilary Armstrong, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster also announced the appointment of seven board members. The appointees will work with recently appointed chairman Clive Grace. Armstrong said: “The success of this new organisation will depend on the drive, dynamism and creativity of these senior staff and I am confident they can do it. They have the wealth of experience and skill between them that can deliver substantial benefits for business, local authorities, consumers and the economy.” The LBRO will “work to deliver significant reductions in the burdens of regulation on compliant businesses and help local authorities focus on the rogue businesses most likely to be breaking regulations, with a remit initially covering local authority trading standards and environmental health services”. HBF calls for housing secretary role The Home Builders Federation has called for a secretary of state for housing, as part of a mini-manifesto it said would “help to address the chronic shortage of over 60,000 homes per year facing this country”. The HBF’s main demand is for more land to be made available for development. Consultancy expands Contaminated land specialist WD Environmental has expanded to new premises at both its head office in Hertfordshire and satellite office in Derbyshire, and embarked on a recruitment programme. “We’ve been surprised with the increasing demand for our services,” managing director Simon Ware said. “We’ve recruited four new people in recent months.”
l www.wdenvironmental.com.

LRT takes on 200ha
English Partnerships has placed around 200 hectares of land under the management of the Land Restoration Trust.
Morgan buys Wolves
Steve Morgan, chairman of contaminated land redevelopment specialist Harrow Estates, is taking over Championship football team Wolves, in a deal where he will buy 100% of president Sir Jack Hayward’s shares for £10, on condition of a £30 million investment in the club.

Ground engineering
A new CIRIA project, embedding sustainability in ground engineering solutions (P2505) will “review the techniques currently undertaken in ground engineering contained within published CIRIA guidance to assess the sustainability credentials of these techniques and investigate how they can be adapted to meet changing perceptions”.
l www.ciria.org.

Wiseman move
Environmental and contaminated land law specialist Andrew Wiseman has left Trowers & Hamlin for Blake Lapthorn Tarlo Lyons, in order to head the company’s environment group.
Visit www.bllaw.co.uk.

Demand on tarpits
The Environment Agency has asked Amber Valley Borough Council to make sure that any planning permission for the Cinderhill development “includes enforceable conditions, which ensure that the whole site is properly investigated and any contamination is dealt with”.

LGA landfill warning
The Local Government Association has warned that landfill space will run out within nine years unless recycling rates are raised. An area the size of Warwick, which covers 109 square miles, is already taken up by landfill, the LGA said. Chairman Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said: “The huge amount of rubbish that is thrown into landfill is a deeply worrying unwelcome headache that is bad for the environment, bad for homes nearby and bad for the council taxpayer.”

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May 2007 headlines (issue 9)

Copeland Council under fire after planning blunder
Copeland Borough Council has come under fire after ordering an investigation into arsenic and land gas (methane and carbon dioxide) contamination on a partly-developed estate in Millom, after it emerged that the Environment Agency had advised the council that a detailed investigation should be required before planning permission was given in March 2003.

Nematode adaption
Soil contamination leads to rapid genetic adaption in the nematode Acrobeloides nanus, raising questions about the suitability of nematodes and other micro-organisms in contaminated land assessment, Dutch-sponsored PhD student Agnieszka Doroszuk has found.

Residents protest
Residents of Harrington Road in South Norwood are protesting against the granting on appeal of planning permission to build houses and flats on the site of a former sewage works they claim is contaminated.

HBF: we need more land
More land must be made available for development if sustainable housing targets are to be met, the House Builders Federation has warned: even if it means building on more greenfield sites.

Second developer moves on tarpits
A second developer has stepped in to take on the heavily contaminated Cinderhill tarpits site, CLB has been told.

Wandle Park project
Croydon Council has announced a £1m Section 106 agreement with Barratt Homes as part of the remediation and redevelopment of a former British Gas site on the Purley Way, despite the fact that the company is currently in breach of its planning permission, CLB has learnt.

Oversight leads to Omagh fine
Omagh District Council has stumbled into a £6,000 fine under the Waste & Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 after failng to gain permission to use waste material for infilling on an area of land adjacent to council-owned playing fields at Strathroy.

Fears on arsenic-laced dust effects
Over 720 square miles of land is contaminated with arsenic in the south west of England, more than half in West Cornwall, Jo Barnes of the Cornwall Air Quality Forum has told a meeting of the Institute of Environment and Health. The comtamination arose from past mining activity.

Radioactive waste
The Environment Agency has carried out an assessment of the potential radiological impact of the disposal of large quantities of very low level solid radioactive waste in sites built to conventional landfill site standards.

Ground gas research
CIRIA is embarking on a research project to develop guidance on the assessment of health risk from the inhalation of ground gases in indoor and ambient air.

Young offenders centre okay
A proposed extension to the young offender institution in Portland looks likely to go ahead after the Environment Agency withdrew its objections on contamination grounds and further investigations ordered by councillors found no risk.

WRAP continues compost trials
The second phase of a project trialling the use of compost in regenerating land following remediation at a former Royal Ordnance Munitions factory at Chorley has been launched by WRAP. The project will also explore the carbon sequestration benefits of using compost in manufacturing topsoil.

Argyll chemical spill
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has been forced to remove contaminated soil from the site of a chemical spill in the Kilmelford area of Argyll. The spill came about when a lorry lost part of its cargo, resulting in up to 1,000 litres of formic acid spilling into the Oude Dam.

Radioactive sheep
Three reports on the monitoring of sheep on farms that remain under post-Chernobyl restrictions have been published by the Food Standards Agency.

Leftwich cancers report due
Consultancy RSK has made the innovative move of involving residents of a site under investigation for contamination issues in the development of parameters for exposure assessment.

Warning on engineered nanoparticles
Napier University’s Vicki Stone has warned that engineered nanoparticles used in land remediation have unknown health risks.

Business rate relief
Local Government Minister Phil Woolas has published legislation aimed at encouraging empty shops, offices, factory and warehouse buildings back into commercial use as part of a package “to create thriving urban centres, renovate empty buildings and promote greater use of brownfield land”.

Silage warning
The Environment Agency has appealed to farmers to make sure they avoid creating any pollution problems when making silage this season.

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April 2007 headlines (issue 8)

Courtaulds clean-up agreed
Wolverhampton City Council and Akzo Nobel have announced a project to destroy the carbon disulphide found at the site of the former Courtaulds factory.

Halton determines golf course
Halton Borough Council has issued a Part IIA determination on the northern section of its municipal golf course, St Michael’s Jubilee in Widnes [see CLB 3].

Heavy metal sheep
Dr Jennifer Sneddon of Liverpool John Moores University has carried out a pilot study to assess the use of upland sheep wool as a bio-monitoring device for natural levels of heavy metals in the Lake District and Wales, the Society for Experimental Biology’s annual meeting in Glasgow heard.

Crest appeals notice
Redland Minerals and housebuilder Crest Nicholson have appealed against a remediation notice served by the Environment Agency in November 2005 relating to land at the St Leonard's Court development in Sandridge, Hertfordshire.

French team cracks tin leachates
Dr David Amouroux and a team at the University of Pau in Southern France have devised a strategy to analyse and quantify alkylated tin compounds arising from landfill sites.

Test Valley notes 1,800 sites
Test Valley Borough Council has published an updated contaminated land strategy after an initial five-year programme of inspections resulted in the identification of over 1,800 sites of potential concern.

Fenland wins Nene Parade CPO case
Fenland District Council has won a Compulsory Purchase Order for the remaining derelict land on the Nene Parade in Wisbech [see CLB 4], paving the way for redevelopment of the contaminated site to commence.

Oldham loses judicial review
A judicial review of planning permissions granted by Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council allowing the demolition of homes in the Derker ward of Oldham as part of a Pathfinder regeneration project has been won by members of the Derker Community Action Group.

Agency consults on groundwater regs
The Environment Agency has launched a consultation into proposals to encourage the sustainable operation of ground source heat pumps, in order to help prevent groundwater pollution.

Resources may limit checks
Pendle Borough Council has identified a total of 1,035 sites of potential concern as part of its Part IIA inspection strategy.

CLARET project begins in Stamford
A world-first research project between South Kesteven District Council, site regeneration specialists VHE Group, Interkonsult and the British Geological Survey has begun at the contaminated Wharf Road car park site in Stamford.

Glasgow investment
An £86 million investment for housing and regeneration in Glasgow has been announced by council leader Steven Purcell and new communities minister Rhona Brankin.

New UWE conditions New conditions regulating the amount of radioactive waste disposal from the two Atomic Weapons Establishments run by AWE have come into force.

Superfund sites
The US Environmental Protection Agency has added five new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites.

Saga of the terrible tarpits
CLB investigates the ongoing saga of the Cinderhill tarpits, a heavily contaminated site that has been the focus of much controversy for Amber Valley Borough Council

Site waste plans
Defra has launched a consultation on site waste management plans for the construction industry.

Gases guidance
The National House-Building Council has published guidance on best practice in dealing with sites where ground gases are present.
l www.nhbcbuilder.co.uk

Luneside consultation
Lancaster City Council is consulting residents on a detailed planning application for the contaminated Luneside East site in the centre of the city.

Portable analyser
Quantitech has launched a portable FTIR multicomponent gas analyser, the Gasmet Dx-4030.

Research report
CL:AIRE Project RP18 Optimising Biopile Processes is now available from the Project PROMISE website. l www.promisebiorem.info

Colliery funding
A regeneration project at the historic colliery at Chatterley Whitfield has gained £3 million in funding to safeguard some of the site’s iconic buildings, English Heritage chairman Sir Neil Cossons has announced

Agency objects
The Environment Agency has objected to a planning application by Veolia Environmental Services for a proposed landfill site at Rock Common Sandpit, Washington, in West Sussex.

Hazards advice
The Health and Safety Executive has introduced a new way to obtain advice on planned developments near major hazard sites and pipelines.

Radioactive gases 
A new UK policy for managing solid low level radioactive waste has been published.
l www.defra.gov.uk/environment/radioactivity/waste/index.htm.

Gasworks to go ahead
Proposals to redevelop the contaminated Lostock Hall gasworks look set to go ahead.

Coalfield successes
More than 16,000 jobs have been created in former coalfield areas over the last ten years and “4,500 football pitches’ worth of previously derelict contaminated land” has been put back into use, according to government research.

Nuclear emissions
New limits on the amount of radioactive waste that can be discharged into the environment have been set for the two nuclear power stations at Heysham in Lancashire.

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March 2007 headlines (issue 7)

Risk forces Bradford plea
The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council has pleaded guilty to a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive that highlights the need for health and safety risk assessments to be carried out on contaminated sites.

SBC: press reports have facts wrong
Scottish Borders Council has responded to “factual inaccuracies in relation to the Violet Bank and Kingsland Square areas of Peebles” in press reports relating to the proposed replacement site for Kingsland Primary School.

PCB breakthrough
Polychlorinated biphenyl remediation could be transformed through the use of a bacterium, American researchers believe.

Review shuns land issues
A high-level government review of local authority regulatory priorities has seen contaminated land left off a list of five national priorities.

Treasury consults on remediation relief
HM Treasury has published a consultation on brownfield land tax incentives as part of this year’s Budget.

Support given to ‘one number’ SGVs
Both the Environmental Industries Commission and the National Society for Clean Air have backed the government’s proposal in its Way Forward document on soil guideline values for the publication of one set of numbers for use in both Part IIA and planning determinations.

Weymouth denies QinetiQ application
Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s planning and traffic committee has denied QinetiQ outline planning permission to demolish existing buildings on the breakwater off Newton’s Road and build a hotel, 110 apartments, a restaurant and other businesses on the site.

Highland Council investigates smelter
Highland Council has carried out an investigation of a former aluminium works in Foyers, Inverness-shire, currently in use as a hydroelectric power station, to establish if contamination is present.

Strategy “thin and ambiguous”
Contaminated land expert Andrew Hursthouse of the University of Paisley has raised his fears about the proposed EU Soil Strategy at the NSCA spring contaminated land update in Birmingham.

Cardiff to test vegetable uptake
Over 100 residents of St Donats Road, Leckwith, Cardiff have met councillors at a public meeting to discuss lack of progress in the remediation of the former landfill site.

Agency acts on south west sites
The Environment Agency has carried out investigations into contamination on two sites in the south west.

More angst for Amber Valley
The application to build at Cinderhill in Denby [see CLB 5] will not be determined until later this year, Amber Valley District Council has announced. The news follows the approval of a draft development brief for the site early this year.

Summer start for Littleport works
Remediation of the blighted Old School Close site in Littleport [see CLB 5] is now expected to begin in the summer.

SEERA slams planning policy
The South East England Regional Assembly has spoken out to criticise the exclusion of windfall sites in future housing planning in Planning Policy Statement 3.

Ellesmere Port contamination alert
An independent investigation is being carried out by Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council into a “mystery” black substance leached from the ground in a back garden in Ellesmere Port following heavy rain, CLB has been told.

Derelict land decreases despite discoveries
The amount of derelict land and urban vacant land in Scotland fell between 2002 and 2006, according to the Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey 2006, despite local authorities identifying 329 new sites.

Landfill guidance
The Environment Agency has published guidance to help business and industry meet the changes to landfill regulations which come into play later this year.

Fungi discovery
Scientists have been able to prove that bacteria are capable of travelling through the soil on the mucous membranes of living fungi.

Knotweed research
A CIRIA project will evaluate the environmental and economic impact of invasive plant and alien animal species; describe how to identify them; list relevant legislation and explain the best control of method for each species.

Consultancy move
Engineering and environmental consultancy Egniol Cyf is is to refurbish the former school building at Penmaenmawr, Conwy, into a new headquarters for the company, which employs 125 people based at offices in Bangor, Cheshire and Derbyshire, with support from the Welsh Assembly.

Site request
CL:AIRE is seeking a suitable site for a technology demonstration project with a project aim of demonstrating an in situ soil heating using radiofrequency (RF) technology in a field trial at a site contaminated with volatile/semi-volatile organic compounds.

Glasgow investment
An £86 million investment for housing and regeneration in Glasgow has been announced by council leader Steven Purcell and new communities minister Rhona Brankin.

New AWE conditions
New conditions regulating the amount of radioactive waste disposal from the two Atomic Weapons Establishments run by AWE have come into force.

SNIFFER report
The results of the National Soil Monitoring Network Review and Assessment Study have been published by SNIFFER.

Greenbelt statistics
Local Planning Authorities Green Belt Statistics: England 2006 has been published by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Metals framework
The US Environmental Protection Agency has produced a document that “lays out the latest and best science available on metals risk assessment”.

Guidance delay
Publication of additional Environment Agency guidance to complement The Definition of waste: developing greenfield and brownfield sites, published in April last year,

Buncefield impacts
Groundwater under and up to two kilometres to the north, east and south east of the Buncefield fire site has been contaminated with hydrocarbons and fire fighting foams, results from the installation of additional monitoring boreholes have shown, according to the Environment Agency.

Coalfield investment
A £20m investment is be made in the government’s National Coalfields Programme by English Partnerships.

Portadown project
Northern Ireland’s minister for social development David Hanson has announced plans to develop proposals for the regeneration of the vacant Curran Street site in Portadown.

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Jan/Feb 2007 headlines (issue 6)

Record grant for Renfrewshire Royal Inch gasworks clean up
Renfrewshire Council has received a record grant for remediation of homes in Royal Inch Crescent in Renfrew as part of £8 million in funding for the clean up of specific sites from the Scottish Executive.

Communities England
The government has announced a merger between English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation and a range of functions carried out by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Tar pits approval despite opposition
Amber Valley Borough Council’s planning board has approved a draft development brief for the Cinderhill site at Denby with minor changes.

All clear in Norwich scare
The Thorpe Park estate in Norwich is neither contaminated land or a special site, the Environment Agency has found following an investigation. Residents of the estate have been waiting over six months for the results of trials.

Falkirk opens Summerford park
A former industrial site at Summerford, near Falkirk, which has lain dormant for nearly forty years, has undergone £1 million of remediation and redevelopment and has been opened to the public.

Relief at last for Seaton Carew
Hartlepool Borough Council hopes to begin remediation of contaminated gardens in Seaton Carew in June, following an indication from Defra that grant money will be forthcoming.

NI minister raises contamination issues
Contaminated land offers both opportunities and challenges for Northern Ireland, environment minister David Cairns has told a conference in Belfast.

Soil strategy discussion paper
NICOLE has published a discussion paper concerning the European Commission’s communication on its proposed soil thematic strategy.

Oakdene withdraws Lewes port proposal
A planning application for the regeneration of the marina and railway areas of Newhaven by developer Oakdene Homes. Possible land contamination was one of the reasons cited by Lewes District Council for the rethink.

Mobile treatment plant licence for REC
REC Remediation has been awarded a Mobile Treatment Plant licence for the treatment of contaminated material, substance or products, for the purpose of remedial action with respect to land or waters, the company has announced.

Cycle path hold up on fatal road
A cycle path planned for an East Sussex road has stalled due to contamination issues, despite the death of a cyclist over a year after the council identified the need for action.

Minewater remediation technology
A device for removing metals pollution from water leaving disused mines has been designed at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Steel slag to rehabilitate colliery spoil
Steel slag dust could be used to remediate contaminated land with high acidity, following research carried out by Birmingham University and Tarmac.

Stirling fined for leachate discharge
Stirling Council has been fined £7500 for discharging excessive amounts of contaminated leachate from its Lower Polmaise landfill site into a river.

Quarry restoration
A “virtual time machine” has been developed to help communities discover the restoration potential of their local quarry.

Superfund report
The US Environmental Protection Agency has published its latest performance figures for the Superfund land remediation programme. Work was completed at 40 sites during the 2006 financial year to bring the total of remediated sites to 1,006.

Best value or bad maths?
The future of the controversial contaminated land best value performance indicator up in the air.

Agency verification consultation
The Environment Agency is seeking responses to its latest consultation document, CLR11 (2004) Verification of remediation of land contamination.
l www.claire.co.uk.

Ground gases guidance published
CIRIA has published Assessing risks posed by hazardous ground gases to buildings, a good practice site handbook to help in the assessment of hazardous ground gases generated from landfills, brownfield sites, coalmines, petrol stations and solvent spillages, as well as gases generated naturally on greenfield sites. l www.ciria.org

Tamdown move
Civil engineering firm the Tamdown Group has moved its western regional office from Basingstoke to new premises at Maidenhead.
l www.tamdown.com

Technical bulletin
CL:AIRE has published (TB5) - The use of geophysical investigation techniques in the assessment of contaminated land and groundwater.
l www.claire.co.uk

Agency to remove knotweed soil
The Environment Agency will remove 7,500 tonnes of soil contaminated with knotweed dumped in Reydon Marshes in Suffolk following a public outcry.

Pit project website
The Michael Shanly Group has set up a website to address local concerns over proposals to build homes on the Badnell’s Pit in Maidenhead.
l Visit www.badnellspit.com

Market report MSI
Marketing Research for Industry has published Data report: contaminated land UK, which “analyses the UK market for contaminated land assessment and remediation for a five year review period (2002-2006) and a five year forecast period up until 2011”.
l Visit www.msi-marketingresearch.co.uk

Compost survey
The Waste & Resources Action Programme has signed contracts with four trailblazer projects to investigate the potential for using quality compost in brownfield land regeneration.

Asbestos stalls factory construction
A planned £2.5m factory in Barrow is on hold following the discovery of asbestos in the ground. Brownfield guide English Partnerships’ Brownfield guide: a practitioner’s guide to land reuse in England is now available.
l For more information go to www.englishpartnerships.org.uk/publications.htm

Road to provide brownfield access
Somerset Highways has begun preliminary work on the Northern Inner Distributor Road, a key element of the major regeneration strategy for Taunton that will provide access to “significant areas of brownfield land for re-development”, according to Somerset County Council.

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December 2006 headlines (issue 5)

Littleport determination at last
East Cambridgeshire District Council has made a Part IIA determination on a former gasworks site that has been the subject of ongoing controversy in the town of Littleport since February 2003.

PPS 3 Housing
The government has published Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing, which housing minister Yvette Cooper said will “tackle obstacles in the planning system which mean that not enough suitable sites are available to deliver the homes families need”.

Generic assessment criteria launch
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and consultancy Land Quality Management have launched a set of generic assessment criteria for contaminants for which no soil guideline values yet exist.

Tyneside green business park
Plans to go ahead with the development of the Hebburn-Jarrow Green Business Park at the heavily contaminated former Durastic site on the banks of the Tyne are moving ahead, according to South Tyneside Council.

Fine for contaminated soil disposal
The illegal disposal of contaminated soil has led to the successful prosecution of a North Lanarkshire company after it failed to ensure that documentation correctly identified the material.

£2 million for mobile home park clean up
Remediation of a contaminated mobile home part in Eynesbury will cost Huntingdonshire County Council almost £2 million.

Scotland consults on environmental law
Scotland has published proposals to improve the enforcement of environmental law – including that covering contaminated land – in a consultation paper which “looks at ways in which the criminal justice system could work better”, according to the Scottish Executive.

Surprise asbestos find in Norwich
Residents of the Thorpe Park estate in Norwich are awaiting test results after an investigation into possible groundwater contamination on the site found evidence of the presence of asbestos.

Antibiotics contaminate agricultural soils
German research is raising worrying questions about contamination from the spreading of liquid manure on agricultural soils.

Award for Biffa STC
Biffa Waste Services has one the best new service award at the NCE innovation awards at Civils 2006.

Natural remediation
The Zander Corporation has launched ClearEarth, which it described as a “newly investigated, naturally occurring material which represents a significant advance over current decontamination processes”.

Topsoil standards
WRAP is working with the British Standards Institute to revise the British Standard Specification for topsoil (BS3882) to encourage the use of manufactured topsoils for landscaping purposes. The increased awareness of land contamination issues is also addressed in the proposed revisions, since reclaimed mineral materials could form a significant feedstock for the soil manufacturing process.

Waste classification research project
A joint Environment Agency/WRAP project funded from the BREW programme, with the aim of defining the point of full recovery from a waste back into a product or material is underway, according to Stewart Marshall of the waste team at Defra. Ten waste types have been chosen, including contaminated soils which have been washed and stabilised.

Nantygwyddon project complete
The final phase of remediation work has been completed at the closed Nantygwyddon landfill site in the Rhondda Fawr.

English Partnerships moves towards strategy
“England’s brownfield land is set to be used more effectively to support communities,” according to English Partnerships, which has published policy proposals that will form the backbone of the national brownfield strategy.

Lowestoft decision
A decision on one of the largest housing developments to be proposed in the Lowestoft area for almost 60 years is likely to be taken by Defra.

Knotweed trouble for Agency
The Environment Agency could face legal action after it admitted contractor Van Oord had dumped 7,500 tonnes of soil contaminated with Japanese knotweed in Reydon Marshes, near Southwold in Suffolk during flood defence works.

Asbestos burial leads to site owner fine
The owner of a development site at Chessesden, Derby has been pleaded guilty to charges relating to the burial of asbestos.

Enquiry into Bishopton proposals
Scottish ministers will investigate plans to redevelop the heavily contaminated former Royal Ordnance Factory site at Bishopton, outside Glasgow, following around 2,000 objections from residents.

Site request for research project
Sheffield University are seeking a characterised unconsolidated site on which to develop their aquifer assessment tool in a six-month project.

CLUSTER meeting
English Partnerships and CL:AIRE have held a meeting of the National Coalfields Programme delivery partners together with interested Local Authority and private sector members, with the purpose of understanding and gaining commitment to the CLUSTER concept.

SGVs – the way forward
Defra has presented its “way forward” on soil guideline values to the task force chaired by Jane Forshaw of CL:AIRE, which includes an explanatory letter from Sue Ellis, head of Defra’s local environment quality division; an annex explaining why some proposals put to government have been put aside; another covering proposals to improve exposure modeling for the CLEA risk assessment software; a paper on “issues of scale and the potential impact of SGVs for land remediation”; and the Way Forward paper itself.

Down and out in the Lea Valley
Remediating vast swathes of the Lower Lea Valley – in the industrial heart of East London – was never going to be easy, especially as part of an Olympic park project of the scale and ambition planned for 2012.


Busy times ahead for York staff
City of York Council staff face challenging times with two contamination issues making headlines in the city.

Consensus on groundwater directive
Agreement on the proposed groundwater directive has been reached in Europe.

Planning consultation
The joint Defra/DCLG consultation on “options for improving the way planning and pollution control regimes work together in delivering new development” is underway, with responses expected before 6 December.
l See www.dclg.gov.uk, responses to permittingplanningconsultation@communities.gsi.gov.uk by 6 December.

Strategy becomes popular guide
The long delayed national brownfield strategy - originally due to be published by Paul Syms’ team at English Partnerships early this year - has morphed into a “guidebook” which will act as a “more user-friendly popular guide rather than a policy document”, an EP spokesperson has told CLB.

New CIRIA chief exec
CIRIA director Bill Healy will become chief executive in January following the departure of Tim Broyd.

MP appalled by planning okay
A government decision to allow redevelopment of the former Adswood landfill in Bramhall has angered residents and Cleadle MP Mark Hunter, who said he was “stunned and appalled” by the decision.

Giant step forward for Luneside East
The redevelopment of the contaminated Luneside East site, in the centre of Lancaster, is to take a visible step forward with the removal of the large gas holder on the site.

Colchester temporary stop notice success
The temporary stop notice served by Colchester Borough Council on a developer that was failing to meet the council’s conditions for remediation of a former petrol station site [see CLB 1] achieved its aims, CLB has learnt.

Fears for Nene River project
Fenland District Council has signed up Taylor Woodrow to build 370 homes on the derelict Nene Waterfront site in Wisbech [see CLB 1], following the granting of planning permission for what the council called the “most significant and important application ever to go before the planning committee”.

Local paper attacks Crawley for “secret” list
Crawley Council has been accused by the Crawley News of keeping a list of potentially contaminated sites identified as part of the its Part IIA inspection regime [see CLB 3] “secret” in an article headed “Toxic land sites silence”.

Grave contamination threatens China
One tenth of China’s arable land is contaminated, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). The environmental watchdog called for an increase in monitoring staff covering rural areas to help address the problem.

Accreditation talks
A further meeting to discuss a proposed remediation contractors accreditation scheme has been held by CL:AIRE’s board of trustees.

Chichester closes allotments
Chichester City Council has closed a number of allotments after the discovery of heavy metals including mercury, cadmium and lead.

Design stalls colliery plans
A 175-home development planned for the former Bestwood Colliery site, north of Nottingham, has stalled after planning permission was refused on design grounds.

Planning enforcement
Guidance for local authorities on how to take planning enforcement action has been outlined by housing and planning minister for the lords, Baroness Andrews following the publication of results of the review of planning enforcement.

Pool project delayed
The £8.5 million extension and redevelopment of Newmarket’s swimming pool is underway, despite delays following the discovery of contamination on the site.

Funding in place for Bickershaw
Bickershaw colliery in Leigh will receive funding of £16.85m under the National Coalfields Programme to create open space, a country park, golf course and visitor centre as part of a package of measures to introduce a healthier lifestyle into an area recognised as one of England's most deprived in terms of well-being.

Fine for untreated waste burial
Buried untreated sewage sludge and abattoir waste could have caused “long-term chronic pollution and generated greenhouse gases” at a former open cast coal site at Auchlin, near Skares in Ayrshire, according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, which has successfully prosecuted Digit Site Services for disposing of untreated waste between May and October 2004. The company was fined £7,500 and costs.

Knotweed remediation could cost £100,000
An initial appeal against an Environment Agency order demanding the removal of soil containing Japanese knotweed from a site owned by Neal Soil Suppliers has been dismissed.

End in sight for soil guideline values fiasco
The long road towards the publication of workable soil guideline values may finally be drawing to a close.

Glasgow faces huge bill for remediation
Remediation of the site planned for Glasgow's National Indoor Sports Arena could cost over £10 million, according to a report presented to Glasgow City Council.

Research strategy
CL:AIRE has published a new strategy document, Priorities for Technology Demonstration and Research 2006, which will be distributed by email in the next week.

Lab redundancies
Over 20 staff will be made redundant from the Colston Laboratory, which carries out contaminated soil and other testing for local authorities across the west of Scotland. It also does some work for the private sector and Government agencies.

Ravenscraig go-ahead
Redevelopment of the former Ravenscraig steelworks site will go ahead after a bid to block plans for the site in Lanarkshire was rejected by the House of Lords.

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November 2006 headlines (issue 4)

Busy times ahead for York staff
City of York Council staff face challenging times with two contamination issues making headlines in the city.

Consensus on groundwater directive
Agreement on the proposed groundwater directive has been reached in Europe.

Planning consultation
The joint Defra/DCLG consultation on “options for improving the way planning and pollution control regimes work together in delivering new development” is underway, with responses expected before 6 December.
l See www.dclg.gov.uk, responses to permittingplanningconsultation@communities.gsi.gov.uk by 6 December.

Strategy becomes popular guide
The long delayed national brownfield strategy - originally due to be published by Paul Syms’ team at English Partnerships early this year - has morphed into a “guidebook” which will act as a “more user-friendly popular guide rather than a policy document”, an EP spokesperson has told CLB.

New CIRIA chief exec
CIRIA director Bill Healy will become chief executive in January following the departure of Tim Broyd.

MP appalled by planning okay
A government decision to allow redevelopment of the former Adswood landfill in Bramhall has angered residents and Cleadle MP Mark Hunter, who said he was “stunned and appalled” by the decision.

Giant step forward for Luneside East
The redevelopment of the contaminated Luneside East site, in the centre of Lancaster, is to take a visible step forward with the removal of the large gas holder on the site.

Colchester temporary stop notice success
The temporary stop notice served by Colchester Borough Council on a developer that was failing to meet the council’s conditions for remediation of a former petrol station site [see CLB 1] achieved its aims, CLB has learnt.

Fears for Nene River project
Fenland District Council has signed up Taylor Woodrow to build 370 homes on the derelict Nene Waterfront site in Wisbech [see CLB 1], following the granting of planning permission for what the council called the “most significant and important application ever to go before the planning committee”.

Local paper attacks Crawley for “secret” list
Crawley Council has been accused by the Crawley News of keeping a list of potentially contaminated sites identified as part of the its Part IIA inspection regime [see CLB 3] “secret” in an article headed “Toxic land sites silence”.

Grave contamination threatens China
One tenth of China’s arable land is contaminated, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). The environmental watchdog called for an increase in monitoring staff covering rural areas to help address the problem.

Accreditation talks
A further meeting to discuss a proposed remediation contractors accreditation scheme has been held by CL:AIRE’s board of trustees.

Chichester closes allotments
Chichester City Council has closed a number of allotments after the discovery of heavy metals including mercury, cadmium and lead.

Design stalls colliery plans
A 175-home development planned for the former Bestwood Colliery site, north of Nottingham, has stalled after planning permission was refused on design grounds.

Planning enforcement
Guidance for local authorities on how to take planning enforcement action has been outlined by housing and planning minister for the lords, Baroness Andrews following the publication of results of the review of planning enforcement.

Pool project delayed
The £8.5 million extension and redevelopment of Newmarket’s swimming pool is underway, despite delays following the discovery of contamination on the site.

Funding in place for Bickershaw
Bickershaw colliery in Leigh will receive funding of £16.85m under the National Coalfields Programme to create open space, a country park, golf course and visitor centre as part of a package of measures to introduce a healthier lifestyle into an area recognised as one of England's most deprived in terms of well-being.

Fine for untreated waste burial
Buried untreated sewage sludge and abattoir waste could have caused “long-term chronic pollution and generated greenhouse gases” at a former open cast coal site at Auchlin, near Skares in Ayrshire, according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, which has successfully prosecuted Digit Site Services for disposing of untreated waste between May and October 2004. The company was fined £7,500 and costs.

Knotweed remediation could cost £100,000
An initial appeal against an Environment Agency order demanding the removal of soil containing Japanese knotweed from a site owned by Neal Soil Suppliers has been dismissed.

End in sight for soil guideline values fiasco
The long road towards the publication of workable soil guideline values may finally be drawing to a close.

Glasgow faces huge bill for remediation
Remediation of the site planned for Glasgow's National Indoor Sports Arena could cost over £10 million, according to a report presented to Glasgow City Council.

Research strategy
CL:AIRE has published a new strategy document, Priorities for Technology Demonstration and Research 2006, which will be distributed by email in the next week.

Lab redundancies
Over 20 staff will be made redundant from the Colston Laboratory, which carries out contaminated soil and other testing for local authorities across the west of Scotland. It also does some work for the private sector and Government agencies.

Ravenscraig go-ahead
Redevelopment of the former Ravenscraig steelworks site will go ahead after a bid to block plans for the site in Lanarkshire was rejected by the House of Lords.

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October 2006 issue 3

Soil strategy back on track
The European Commission has relaunched its proposed Soil Thematic Strategy, which has been much delayed - and was thought by many to have been dropped altogether - following opposition from member states including the UK.
l Full details of the strategy are available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/index.htm

CLEA update
The Environment Agency has formally withdrawn CLEA 2002, it has been announced.
l The update can be found on the Environment Agency’s CLEA web pages at: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/landquality/113813/672771/6787

Golf course testing complete
Halton Borough Council has completed the last scheduled inspections at the St Michael’s golf course, closed since October 2004 following the discovery of severe contamination.

York to investigate
City of York Council should get the go-ahead to carry out detailed investigations into three former landfill sites when members meet to approve proposals this month.

Video briefing
The European Commission has posted an eight-minute video news briefing on the proposed Soil Thematic Strategy on the internet.
l Visit www.tvlink.org/viewer.cfm? vidID=180&strID=102.

Water guidance
CIRIA has published Control of water pollution from linear construction projects, which provides guidance on how to plan and manage water pollution from linear projects.
l www.ciriabooks.com or call 020 7549 3300.

Accreditation scheme moves forward
The proposed remediation industry accreditation scheme will be discussed at a meeting of CL:AIRE’s board on 26 October. CL:AIRE has hosted two preliminary fact-finding meetings to discuss the proposed creation of an accreditation scheme for remediation contractors.

Crawley finds 1,000 sites of concern
Crawley Council has identified approximately 1,000 sites of possible concern within its boundaries during phase one of its investigation regime under Part IIA, according to a report to the council executive.

Health village project stalled
Work has begun to clean up a former railway lands site in Oswestry, which Advantage West Midlands hopes will become a £30 million health village for the town. However, the project is stalled due to a campaign by some residents to designate the site a common.

Drought damage to microbial populations
The ability of micro-organisms to degrade herbicides in contaminated soils is drastically curtailed by drought and record summer heat, researchers at the National Research Center for Environment and Health (GSF) in Germany.

Diffuse pollution
The European Commission has published online the first consolidated European inventory of pollution from small, scattered sources.
l www.eper.ec.europa.eu.

Brownfield forum
CIRIA has launched a brownfield forum to “address a lack of confidence in brownfield redevelopment in the construction industry”.
l www.ciria.org

Development threat to wildlife
Plans to remediate and redevelop the 910ha Kennet Valley Park site near Reading are being opposed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds due to the presence of an important population of nightingales.

Cleaned munitions site wildlife treasury
A formerly top secret munitions site in North Wales where scientific researchers worked on the world’s first atomic bomb has been handed over to a local wildlife trust by Defra.

Groundwater timebomb
Nitrates and phosphorous from agricultural chemicals and fertilisers are contaminating rivers and groundwater in the UK - and will continue to do so for the next 70-80 years, even if tight restrictions are put in place immediately, according to scientists from the Natural Environment Research Council’s LOCAR programme.

Dormice move in
Surrey Wildlife Trust says that a survey in late September of the area around Chilworth where gunpowder works were once located has found dormice and the Trust will install special nest boxes to care for them.

Equipment in demand
Equipment supplier Quantitech says it has received increased interest in its InfraCal portable TOG/TPH analyser following revised advice from the Environment Agency, which emphasises the value of onsite testing.

Gasworks plan
A gaswork site in Lostock Hall is set to be transformed into a new housing, office and business village.

Spodden valley stalls again
The ongoing saga of the Spodden Valley redevelopment near Rochdale continues with plans currently on hold following a report to Rochdale Council by Atkins Global that found considerable amounts of asbestos and some hydrocarbon contamination.

CL:AIRE/SAGTA workshop policy update
CL:AIRE and SAGTA have held a successful workshop titled Building Confidence in Remediation. Attendees heard updates on contaminated land policy and remediation strategies from Defra’s Sue Ellis and the Environment Agency’s Brian Bone, along with a number of presentations from industry figures.

Brent investigates
Brent Council is analysing soil samples from local allotments as part of its contaminated land inspection regime. The council said it was beginning with allotments as risk to public health would be greatest if contaminat

Rotherham plans
Plans for the redevelopment of the former Croda bitumen factory at Kilnhurst have been submitted to Rotherham Council by the Woodford Group.

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Aug/Sept 2006 headlines (issue 2)

CPRE names and shames
Local authority success in prioritising brownfield sites for redevelopment has been highlighted in a Campaign for the Protection of Rural England report that rates over 300 councils outside London.

Brownfield land could fit one million homes
Existing available brownfield land could accommodate one million new homes, according to government statistics.

Radioactive rules
Changes to land contamination rules that set out how radioactive contaminated land should be dealt with have come into force have been welcomed be the Environment Agency.

Kensal Green plans
The Peabody Trust is to build 790 homes and a business park on land next to the Kensal Green

Planning hope in tar pits impasse
Proposals for a £65 million mixed-use redevelopment of the grossly contaminated Cinderhill tar pits in Denby have been submitted to Amber Valley Borough Council by the Banks Group.

Crops for fuel and bioremediation project
Research into growing crops for biofuels on contaminated brownfield sites will be carried out in the US by Michigan State University in partnership with DaimlerChrysler.

Odour alert at Salford tar plant
The remediation of a former British Tar plant at Cadishead, Salford has led to complaints from residents who became concerned about odours from the site, and informed council environmental health officers.

Go ahead for South Bucks development
Plans to build homes on a contaminated site have been approved by South Bucks District Council, despite concerns about contamination expressed by residents.

ERM to offer remediation project management
Consultancy ERM has launched the European arm of its subsidiary, ERM Remediation & Construction Management.

Trade guide available
CL:AIRE has co-produced a trade guide with the UK Trade & Investment’s Environmental Industries Sector Unit to UK companies working on contaminated land and remediation.

Milestone for awards
CEEQUAL, an awards scheme that assesses the environmental quality of civil engineering projects, has announced that the construction value of projects assessed has

HBF criticises targets
Responding to a report from the CPRE on the Thames Gateway area, the Home Builders Federation’s Stewart Baseley said: “Developments on brownfield sites should be encouraged where feasible, but a 100% brownfield target combined with very high density targets will risk provision of homes which people will not want to buy.

Homes for derelict quarry site
A derelict former quarry site in North Leeds will be redeveloped into a 472 home mixed use development if a planning application submitted to Leeds City Council by the Burford Group is approved.

Re-brand for Shanks
Shanks Waste Management has re-branded its contaminated land department as Shanks Soil Solutions. The company will utilise a number of technologies either onsite or at soil hospitals.

SEPA warning on oil
Over the next four years, Scottish industry will need to comply with new Oil Storage Regulations, according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, which has issued advice on how industry can comply with the design standards for new and existing above ground oil storage facilities.

Contamination probe at proposed campus
Land approved for purchase by Waveney District Council for the Waveney campus building will be investigated for possible contamination, the council has announced. The site has a century-long history of industrial use.

Soil sampling made easy
A computer program which can sample contaminated and other soils quickly and effectively “could revolutionise land management by making the sampling process more cost effective and ensuring more sustainable use of our soils”, according to researcher at Rothamsted Research.

Waverley progresses in Godalming
Plans to progress Godalming’s controversial Key Site development look set to go ahead with a planning application for a children’s centre on the site. Local opposition to the development, on land developers say is contaminated with arsenic and lead, has been extensive.

Contamination is a home ‘deal-breaker’
Contaminated land is the biggest “deal-breaker” in house transactions, according to research from the Woolwich.

Further soil sampling at York allotments
A lead and arsenic scare has led City of York Council to announce it will take further soil samples from a number of plots at the Fulford Cross allotments, and the nearby walled garden and nature reserve areas.

EIC launches
Scottish working group Lobby group the Environmental Industries Commission has today launched a new group to “give the industry a voice with Scottish regulatory authorities”. The Scottish working group will “focus on providing a strong and effective representation on the key barriers to land remediation in Scotland”, EIC said.

Mucklow appointed to Dudley Development
Midland-based property company Mucklow will bring a derelict 12.5 acre site in Dudley back to life with a £12 million development which is expected to create around 180 jobs.

Homes controversy
Planning permission has been given for 75 homes on the former Bellhouse Hartwell factory site in Westhoughton

Opposition mounts to PPS3 revamp
Opposition to draft Policy Planning Statement 3 has reached a deafening roar over fears it will lead to higher greenfield development.

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July 2006 headlines (Launch issue 1)

Commission backtracks on promised soil thematic strategy
The soil thematic strategy has “mysteriously disappeared” from the European Commission agenda, according to the European Environmental Bureau, which accused it of “abandoning soil protection”.

Readers welcome Bulletin launch issue
see below

Midlands council considers home demolition
Up to 17 properties may be demolished on the site of a former Courtaulds factory. Wolverhampton City Council is considering a proposal to clean up carbon disulphide from the site in partnership with Akzo Nobel, which bought Courtaulds in 1998.

Regime change
Changes to the contaminated land regime come into force on 4 August.

Colchester serves stop notice
Colchester Borough Council has issued a temporary stop notice against a developer that failed to comply with requirements to properly remediate a site before commencing works.

Mobile home residents to be rehoused
Remediation will go ahead at a mobile home park in Eynesbury found to be contaminated with benzo(a)pyrene by Huntingdonshire District Council. Residents will be rehoused while works take place.

Agency revises MCERTS rules
The Environment Agency has revised its MCERTS policy for the testing of soils in order to clarify its position on in situ sampling and analysis.

Olympic contractors named
Remediation contractors for London’s Olympic Park site have been named by the London Development Agency. Edmund Nuttall and Galliford Try will be responsible for remediating over one million cubic metres of soil.

Norwich masterplan
Plans to regenerate a key area of east Norwich are to be taken forward through the creation of a new masterplan. The work has been commissioned by the East of England Development Agency and Norwich City Council.

Research park launch
A multi-million pound project based at Cardiff University will tackle the legacy of land contamination left by Wales’ industrial and mining past and create company growth and new jobs in Wales.

Tories campaign against HIPs
The Conservative Party has launched a campaign against the introduction of home information packs, criticising them as “dodgy” because of a number of perceived failings, including the non-inclusion of information on land contamination.

Regs blamed for two year battle
Pendle Council has criticised the contaminated land regime following a two-year court battle over responsibility for remediation on a contaminated site, which has still not been resolved.

Ordnance site plan revealed
A planning application for the redevelopment of the former Royal Ordnance factory at Bishopton, near Glasgow, has been received by Renfrewshire Council.

Green light for Luneside East
Approval for a compulsory purchase order for the “grossly contaminated” Luneside East site in central Lancaster has been granted by the government.

Clyde Gateway partnership launch
Plans to clean up and redevelop 865 acres of derelict and contaminated land in Glasgow and Lanarkshire have been launched. Public funding of £248m is in place for the Clyde Gateway partnership, and it is hoped the project will attract an additional £1.4bn of private investment.

Colliery transformed
The regeneration of the former Weetslade Colliery in North Tyneside into a wildlife area has been completed.

LRT appointments
The Land Restoration Trust has appointed three new development managers.

Testing continues
Families on an estate in Cadishead are still waiting for the all-clear two years after Salford Council began investigations into concerns that the former site of an engineering works, wallpaper factory and copper tank manufacturers could be contaminated with heavy metals, solvents and coal tar.

All clear from Mole Valley for estate
Following a protracted round of sampling, which the Mole Valley Council said was hindered by lack of clarity in government guidance on contaminant levels requiring remediation, an estate in Bookham has been given the all-clear by the council’s environmental health department and technical adviser Mike Quint of ESI.

Investment assistance
City financier AngelBourse and the Environmental Industries Commission have launched a service aimed at gaining access to investment for UK environmental companies.

Compost project
WRAP is calling for interested parties to apply for funding to promote the use of compost in the regeneration and remediation of brownfield sites.

Demonstration report
CL:AIRE has completed and published its latest technology demonstration project report: A Reducing and Alkalinity Producing System (RAPS) for Passive Treatment of Acidic, Aluminium Rich Mine Waters.

UXO research project
CIRIA is producing the first UK good practice guidance to help developers and clients deal with unexploded ordnance: A clients’ guide for assessing risk on UXO.

Record profits
Profits at environmental consultancy Hyder Consulting have “advanced by 169%”, according to the company. Turnover is up 26% to £171.3 million and the company said its order book has grown by 30% in the past year to £240 million.

Research funding
Lancaster University has been awarded funding for a PhD student to help develop better methods of bioremediation.

Readers welcome Bulletin launch issue
Welcome to the first issue of Contaminated Land Bulletin, the new monthly newsletter for contaminated land professionals in both the public and private sectors.

The Bulletin is edited by Rob Bell, a specialist environmental journalist with many years experience in the field, and the ex-editor of Contaminated Land Management and Environment Business. Bell said: “Contaminated land is a fascinating and fast moving area and it’s a pleasure to be writing about it. Growing public awareness and a rapidly changing regulatory framework mean that local authority officers, developers, contractors and many others need the up-to-date and concise information CLB will provide.”

Contaminated Land Bulletin’s launch customers are Nigel Clark, marketing director of consultancy Enviros, and Linda Attrell, service unit manager of the pollution control group at Lewisham Borough Council.

Clark said: “I welcome the launch of Contaminated Land Bulletin. There has never been a more important time to be up to speed on the issues the Bulletin will be covering. And with Rob in control it is sure to be an informative, incisive and entertaining read.”

Attrell also welcomed the launch of CLB, which will be published alongside Air Quality Bulletin and Noise Bulletin. “CLB will complete a trilogy of informative publications. It is a particularly welcome addition as contaminated land has received limited coverage in the past in this manner.

”The time available to local authority officers to read publications is limited, and I’m sure the Bulletin will be an invaluable way of keeping up-to-date with contaminated land news.”

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